2013: It's a Wrap

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Final 'Hail Mary' FYC Pleas

The nomination voting polls close for the 87th Academy Award on Wednesday, January 8th.  If Academy members are anything like me then this time of year is filled with endless anxiety and frustration.  Fears of being hopelessly behind just as the lull of the new year wants to push me forward.  Did I see everything I wanted to or needed to?  What did I miss?  How can I process all the hours of cinemas I've crammed in the past few weeks into a cohesive whole celebrating the very best of the past film year?  It's all a little too much.  If Academy members have this feeling, I'm understand, I sympathize...I'm here to help.  Here are some of my favorites, my last minutes pleas of the 2013 cinematic year that I hope you consider.  Heck, even if you haven't seen some of them, but are unsure of what to fill your ballots with, just go ahead a trust me.

BEST ACTRESS: Julie Delpy, Before Midnight
The leading actress category is pretty full and full of Oscar vets of varying degrees of worthiness, but one name that should have a higher profile is Delpy, the brittle heart and anguishing soul of Before Midnight.  She was worthy the last go around as well in Before Sunset, so perhaps more than little guilt over that upset could be remedied by nominating her here.  She brings such a volcanic display of passion, intelligence and anger to the third chapter of the Before series, but there's a consummate craft that modulates the performance and furthermore the film.  Delpy already earned Indie Spirit and Globe nominations for her effort, so this isn't totally out of the realm of feasibility, so plop the screener in, acknowledge these great films, or just check it off to rid thyselves of past sins.

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: Enough Said- Nicole Holofcener
It's a shame that Holofcener has never been nominated for writing before since her style is so specific and witty and almost elementary in what makes up good writing.  She came close, perhaps, a few years ago when her script for Please Give earned a WGA nomination, but the Academy has never bitten.  Sure, there's a bit of a Woody Allen thing that centers her films, as all her films take the perspective of a white and neurotic middle class woman grappling with white middle class issues, but Allen has been out of touch for years (decades?) and the Academy still bites when he's done something decent.  Holofcener, on the other hand, has always brought a brittle, perceptive economy to her films and Enough Said is one of her strongest, a deft, funny, utterly relatable human drama about real grown-ups.  Deceptively simple perhaps to a fault (and it's true that sometimes the filmmaking itself is somewhat pedestrian), but urgent, heartfelt, tender and real.

BEST PICTURE: Frances Ha
How about this-- any Oscar voter currently stumped, why not just vote for Noah Baumbach's joyous and scrumptious comedy of manners in every category.  I mean if The King's Speech was beloved enough to merit sound nominations, there really is no ceiling for the besotted ones.  And nothing in 2013 was deserving of unanimous praise than this witty, generous Greta Gerwig-headlined gift.  I've gushed time and time again about the may joys of the film and while I'm not silly enough to think for a second that this plea won't fall on deaf ears, I encourage each and all to find this gorgeous amalgam of vintage Woody Allen, French New Wave cinema and very contemporary hipster-dom and discover for themselves.  We can all dance around the streets to the tune of Bowie afterward.

BEST DIRECTOR: Spike Jonze, Her
Moving along from straight up fantasy to a very real contender that hopefully doesn't get shafted.  Hey Academy, remember, you once dug Spike Jonze-- you even nominated him for his feature directorial debut Being John Malkovich all the way back in 1999, so this isn't even that crazy to ask of you to acknowledge the pristine polish, magic and artistry he brought to Her.  While he's surely going to nominated for writing the screenplay to the boy meets operation system romantic dramedy, it's the direction of the film that's the real selling point-- all that fantastic, subtle, playful and evocative flourishes to a totally feasible, yet soft world building of a near future Los Angeles should not go unnoticed.  And while you're at it, please remind your production designer and director of photography friends that Her is worthy of slots there as well.

BEST COSTUME DESIGN: The Hunger Games: Catching Fire- Trish Summerville
Summerville already proved her laurels with her chic and stylish designs for The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, becoming David Fincher's go-to costumer (she'll re-team with him on Gone Girl), but her Catching Fire costumes were eye-catching and alluring in contrasting the grimy and poor cloth in the districts to the opulent, whatsits all around the Capitol.  The budget clearly rose in the second chapter, and the film is a richer, bolder, more colorful thing because of it, but the artistry on display-- especially from Summerville-- was definitely Oscar worthy.

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: In a World...- Lake Bell
This probably won't happen and that's cool, however In a World... kind of got a bum rap.  Bell won the Screenwriting Prize at Sundance last winter and the film made but a minor splash when it premiered last summer, but the film is so sneaky and smart and deserved a lot more than it got.  Using the conceit of voice over artists as a microcosm of the film industry as a whole, Bell displayed such wit and insight in gender politics while maintaining an steely, amusing grip of the film as a whole.  It's a comedy, and a damn good one, but there's more to it.  Plus, if you're gonna ignore Holofcener, there should be a few female writers nominated this year-- 2013 was a great year for female actors and filmmakers, you just had to (as this film makes implicitly clear) really search for them.

BEST ACTOR: Oscar Isaac, Inside Llewyn Davis
Likely one of the actors teetering on the dreaded sixth or seventh slots of a very crowded Best Actor race, but there's still a chance (right?) that Isaac's glorious chamber piece of a performance in the Coen Brothers' folk rock odyssey that right can prevail in the end.  In truth Isaac plays a difficult character-- a brooding failure of a folk singer trying to break through right on the cusp of when Bob Dylan was about to start a revolution.  He's not always likable in that cookie-cutter way we like our leading men to be, but the film goads us swiftly into rooting for him.  It helps that his voice is a thing of wonder and Isaac portrays Llewyn Davis as an uniquely charismatic, endlessly talented loser.  Plus, really, just think how cool the actors branch will look in history for nominating it?  Seriously, your grandchildren are judging you.

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: The Spectacular Now- Scott Neustadter & Michael H. Weber
A certain amount of leeway can be forgiven for the lack of awardage for The Spectacular Now-- it's a movie about teenagers that all but touts its after-school-like programming as a badge of honor, but the fresh and invigorating adaptation of Tim Tharp's novel is perceptive and alive and allows for its actors to do great work in such a rare way, it would be shame for it be unacknowledged.  Perhaps it feels too-lived in and the film is likely too-little seen, but that's no excuse.  Neustadter & Weber were on the cusp of a nomination five years ago for the original screenplay (500) Days of Summer that never came to fruition, but their work on The Spectacular Now is better and bigger (by being smaller) that it's all the more deserving. 

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY: Spring Breakers- Benoît Debie
I understand that Spring Breakers probably wasn't really your thing.  I'm okay with that, it wasn't really my thing either.  In fact, I didn't even particularly care for Harmony Korine's brash, the kids-are-not-alright neon nightmare.  However, separating tremendous technical achievements from the overall quality of a film is another matter and one that the Academy membership should appreciate as well.  Debie, the rigorous and exhausting talent who's lensed films like Enter the Void, The Runaways and Irreversible is a undisputed talent.  The fever dream shots make give the film the nightmare-dreamlike setting that it needed but didn't deserve.  His contributions were utterly fantastic and awards worthy.

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: The World's End- Simon Pegg & Edgar Wright
Yeah, the pub carousing turned apocalyptic comedy probably isn't something that was ever on your radar, I understand that.  But the witty, inventive and intelligently sharp screenplay for The World's End handles so many neat parlor tricks that it was easy to forget that the film is actually quite moving.  All of the sci-fi/frat house comedy that's packed on the surface doesn't take away the quietly sobering grace notes of human connection and growing pains that face a group of high school friends now faced with the hobbles of grown-up existence.  Have a pint and get a sense of humor.

Okay, I was pretty rough on you, but heed my advise.

Sight & Sound Top Ten of 2013

1. The Act of Killing- directed by Joshua Oppenheimer
2. Gravity- directed by Alfonso Cuarón
3. Blue is the Warmest Color- directed by Abdellatif Kechiche
4. The Great Beauty- directed by Paolo Sorrentino
5. Frances Ha- directed by Noah Baumbach
6. A Touch of Sin- directed by Zhangke Jia
7. Upstream Color- directed by Shane Carruth
8. The Selfish Giant- directed by Clio Barnard
9. Norte, The End of History- directed by Lav Diaz
10. Stranger by the Lake- directed by Alain Guiraudie

Independent Spirit Awards Nominations

12 Years a Slave leads with 7 nominations.

BEST FEATURE
12 Years a Slave
All is Lost
Frances Ha
Inside Llewyn Davis
Nebraska

BEST FIRST FEATURE
Blue Caprise
Concussion
Fruitvale Station
Una Noche
Wadjda 

JOHN CASSAVETES AWARD (given to the best feature made under $500,000)
Computer Chess
Crystal Fairy
Museum Hours
Pit Stop
This is Martin Bonner

BEST DIRECTOR
Shane Carruth, Upstream Color
J.C. Chandor, All is Lost
Steve McQueen, 12 Years a Slave
Jeff Nichols, Mud
Alexander Payne, Nebraska

BEST MALE LEAD
Bruce Dern, Nebraska
Chiwetel Ejiofor, 12 Years a Slave
Oscar Isaac, Inside Llewyn Davis
Michael B. Jordan, Fruitvale Station
Matthew McConaughey, Dallas Buyers Club
Robert Redford, All is Lost 

BEST FEMALE LEAD
Cate Blanchett, Blue Jasmine
Julie Delpy, Before Midnight
Gaby Hoffmann, Crystal Fairy
Brie Larson, Short Term 12
Shailene Woodley, The Spectacular Now 

Quentin Tarantino's Top 10 of 2013

It's only October, but auteur/personality Quentin Tarantino has unveiled his top ten of the year, or at least so far.  It's a very Tarantino-like list, but there's something to said for filmmakers who dole out their personal favorites and an enduring fascination to that.  A fun experiment for all prolific filmmakers, me thinks.

In alphabetical order:

• Afternoon Delight (Jill Soloway)
• Before Midnight (Richard Linklater)
• Blue Jasmine (Woody Allen)
• The Conjuring (James Wan)
• Drinking Buddies (Joe Swanberg)
• Frances Ha (Noah Baumbach)
• Gravity (Alfonso Cuarón)
• Kick Ass 2 (Jeff Wadlow)
• The Lone Ranger (Gore Verbinski)
• This Is the End (Evan Goldberg, Seth Rogan)

Things I Learned On My Summer Vacation

The summer movie season came and assaulted the senses and poof, it's gone.  The Labor Day weekend signals the end of that special parcel of time when Hollywood throws all its bombast in our faces, but the sign posts have been there for a few weeks now, evident by the dominance of Lee Daniels' The Butler solid box office play and three week straight strangle hold as the number one film of the nation.  It's not so much that the Forest Whitaker-Oprah Winfrey Civil Rights drama has posted the most significant numbers in the stratosphere (they certainly are impressive, especially given the subject matter) but more so because the dog days of August are when Hollywood typically gives up and regroups for fall.  It may be too early to tell how the cinematic offerings of the past few months will hold up and where there legacy lies, but first impressions are typically all that matters (especially in today's climate where a film lives or dies based on opening night grosses), but there's always takeaways, residual damages and lessons to be learned.  Here's Musings and Stuff's rundown of the good, bad and ugly of the 2013 Summer Movie Season.

First off, seventeen of Hollywood's offerings raked in over $100 million at the box office, which is a healthy sign that the theater-going habit isn't quite dead yet.  The top of the charts, unsurprisingly is Iron Man 3, which joined the worldwide billion dollar club and started summer 2013 with a bang, thanks to The Avengers afterglow.  The Marvel machine is healthy enough it hardly matters the film, strangely critically accepted, wasn't all that.  The real test, however, should be found in the grosses and the critical impact made by lesser Marvel standalone vehicles Thor and Captain America as each will have individual offerings in the next 365 days.  The remaining sixteen films tell a startlingly different story.

Halftime

The first half of the year usually is devoid of Oscar-y titles-- typically a dumping ground for product and the hopeful launch of things big and shiny-- but nonetheless we are well behind the first six months of 2013 and a short time ahead of the fall festival circuit when things start getting wonky.  Are there any takeaways thus far that may have any impact on the 2013 Oscar race?

It's true that Best Picture winners and nominees typically are introduced in the latter part of the calendar year-- since 2000 only three eventual Best Picture winners were released in the first half (The Hurt Locker, Crash, Gladiator) and only a handful of nominees (Up, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Midnight in Paris, Moulin Rouge!, Erin Brockovich) have managed that feat.  Still at this stage of the game when all is mere speculation and all in the movie awards land still feels pure and innocent, it's fun to ponder the playful possibilities.

The only Best Pictures winners since 2000 to be released before July.

BEST PICTURE

Last year, the winner of the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance was a plucky bit of poetry called Beasts of the Southern Wild which managed the nearly unbelievable task of netting four Oscar nominations including Picture and Director-- it became just the third Sundance to Oscar translation in history following Precious (2009) and Winter's Bone (2010.)  This year Sundance bestowed its top prize (as well as the Audience Award) to Fruitvale Station, Ryan Coogler's feature debut about the 2009 BART shooting of Oscar Grant.  The Weinstein Company hopes magic strikes again for the well-received film.  It opened last week in limited release to one of the biggest per-screen averages of the year (third to only Spring Breakers and A Place Beyond the Pines) and may very well enter the zeitgeist due to the sense of urgency bestowed due to the Zimmerman verdict (also last weekend.)  The key, of course, will be the position the great Harvey puts the film in towards the end of the year (remember, he's got a lot of awards potential set to come at the end of the year including August: Osage County, Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, Philamena and Grace of Monaco.)

10 Best Performances of 2013 (So Far)

We have arrived at the halfway point of 2013.  What has the cinema offered us so far?  In the first part of a multi-part retrospective, here are my favorite performances of the year so far.

Runners-up:  Benedict Cumberbatch, Star Trek Into Darkness; Henry Cavill, Man of Steel; James Franco, Spring Breakers; Mia Wasikowski, Stoker; Michael Cera, This Is the End

10) Ryan Gosling, The Place Beyond the Pines
Gosling and filmmaker Derek Cianfrance cobbled together some kind of alchemy in Blue Valentine in 2010 (with a little bit of help from Michelle Williams, in an Oscar-nominated performance.)  The sharpest instinct Cianfrance exhibited with his grander, messier follow-up work was reuniting with the resourceful Gosling.  In a film that ultimately bites off more than it's able to chew, the ingenious performer proves to be the best part of this ambitious triptych melodrama about fathers and sons and the overbearing consequences of ones past and upbringing.  Gosling's Luke is a rebel outcast in the mold of an old school antihero-- James Dean or Marlon Brando might have played this part had Place been made in the 1950s-- and yet despite the endless look of cool and mystique so fetishistically photographed by Cianfrance, Gosling shades his Robin Hood-like character with a brimming and soulful yearning.  Luke is the first part of The Place Beyond the Pines, and without spoiling anything, once he disappears, the film starts to crumble.

9) Mickey Sumner, Frances Ha
The ugly sting of nepotism rings a dampening effect to a budding young performer, a nearly contemptuous sneer at times.  However, sometimes a performance and film is so radiant and so effortlessly lived-in that in the private sanctuary of a movie palace, you can forget the entire world outside.  It needn't be necessary to know that Sumner is the offspring of Sting and Trudie Styler, and the film that surrounds her richly comic and well observed supporting turn, Frances Ha, is strong enough to make you forget nearly anything that ales.  As Sophie, Frances' BFF through the scary jungle of contemporary New York ennui, Sumner is sarcastic and ironic, sardonic, but also a lovesick dreamer.  To play such contradictory notes without ever falling into caricature is a testament to a hopefully inspired new artist; to turn them is something that's nearly moving is something even more special.

8) Jude Law, Side Effects
If Steven Soderbergh's retirement from the movies is in fact deemed true, at the very least, one can say, he went out with a hell of a year.  Surely, it will be HBO's Behind the Candelabra that will be the one to net the most trophies and esteemed hosannas, but his year began with the tight and delightfully warped little noir called Side Effects that just as effectively imbued all the skills that have complemented Soderbergh's career.  The first and most glaring compliment must be his work his actors, and in that regard, Jude Law's lithe and menacingly playful performance as slippery doctor who may or may not be being duped is worthy in it of itself of more acclaim than it will likely ever receive.  Law, it appears, may be on the upswing with surprisingly fruitful performances in not just Side Effects, but also last fall's anemic Anna Karenina, and his performance here is easily his most awake, alert and sharply keyed in than the actor has been since his career peak period that ascended in The Talented Mr. Ripley and swayed as Gigolo Joe in A.I. Artificial Intelligence.

7) Alden Ehrenreich, Beautiful Creatures
It was supposed to a silly little movie made in an attempt to cash in on the young adult star-crossed lovers/occult phase-- in short it was merely supposed to be a rip off of Twilight, and yet it somehow became 2013's most inexplicably ignored film critically and commercially.  Richard LaGravenese's Beautiful Creatures somehow, under some set of only-in-the-movies sort of magic is a gleefully underrated and joyous oddball of a movie about the teenage romance between a mortal boy and a witch.  Sounds pretty dull, but the writing, playful visuals and the potent performances that are sharp as a tick, but forever realizing what indeed this material really is make it one of the more pleasant surprises of the year.  Leading actor Alden Ehrenreich is perhaps the biggest surprise of all as the lovelorn Ethan Wade, a melding together of jock and nerd boy next door, he proves a charming leading man with a hopefully fruitful career ahead of him.  His performance here would blow Robert Pattinson and all the other mimics well away. 

6) Elle Fanning, Ginger & Rosa 
Elle Fanning, younger sister of Dakota, has for years been somewhat trapped in the doomed muse-like role for her leading men.  Sure, in films like Super 8 and Somewhere, Fanning had a captivating hold over the audience, but the characters themselves were used as little more than to serve her male co-stars.  Ginger & Rosa, a blink-and-you've-missed-it independent drama released this past spring gave Fanning the sharpest character she's yet to play, and the performer took to it with the natural precision of a gifted surgeon, even acquiring a believable British accent to boot.  As the rebellious young girl raised by a prim and conservative mother in the 1960s, Fanning shows incomparable diction and poise. 

5) Matthew McConaughey, Mud
Whatever happened in the last two years or so in the life of Matthew McConaughey, it was apparently and abundantly worth it.  For this sudden and startling period of productively in the career of the one-time nude-banjo-player is as surprising as any third act twist.  Mud, Jeff Nichols' follow-up to Take Shelter, made its inauspicious premiere at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival and left the stew for nearly a year before making its way to American movie houses.  The surprise (or perhaps not after the year the performer has having) was McConaughey's richly nuanced and beatifically observed performances as the titular Mud, a fugitive forever dreaming for a better life with the troubled girl whom he loves.  Nichols' film takes a few missteps along the way, and concludes as an utterly contrived yarn, but McConaughey's steely gaze and reserve is unsettling, sympathetic and in sharp command.

4) Gael Garcia Bernal, No
The invaluable Bernal has made a wondrous journeyman career for himself working alongside filmmakers as varied and vibrant as Michel Gondry, Pedro Almodovar, Alfonso Cuaron, Walter Salles and Alejandro González Inárritu and yet imbuing a rich, quiet humanity carried over every genre and tone.  With Pablo Larraín's bold and enriching No, Bernal has clearly and authoritatively honed in on his gift for the title of leading man with the most humility and compassion for his projects and characters.  There's never a false note in the complex and beautifully engrossing performance, nor a stance for side-swipping showboating-- every tic, manner and line reading in the service of this most superior film and while his most compelling humanistic approach to his characters may never give this exceptional performer the awards or plaudits he richly deserves, it's a novel and engrossing detail that has made Bernal one of the finest actors of his generation.

3) Nicole Kidman, Stoker
Chan-wook Park's English-language debut was a mixed bag of a film, but the biggest and most reassuring highlight was the beaut and hoot and a half of the performance that Kidman delivered.  She spends the majority of the film sidelined in her own little chamber piece of play-- a sort of lost Tennessee Williams heroine, but in the final moments unleashes a giddy showcase of maternal hell that frankly the subdued hothouse of a chiller needed a bit more of.  Kidman's ravenous contempt and rage all quivers to the seems in a chilling last-minute monologue that gives the chameleon actress finally something to chew on, and settles the film with a tasty bit of naughtiness.

2) Elizabeth Debicki, The Great Gatsby
Baz Luhrmann's lurid and colorful retelling of The Great Gatsby was supposed to the ultimate cinematic staging for the doomed star-crossed lovers Jay and Daisy, played here by Leonardo DiCaprio and Carey Mulligan.  However it was newcomer Debicki as the supporting player Jordan Baker who ran away with the best in show honors, not because Luhrmann showcased or particularly upped the impact of the role, but because Debicki brought a stylized charm and grace to the one-note acting proceedings, adding notes and abundant flair to her side-lined character.

1) Greta Gerwig, Frances Ha
My favorite film so far in 2013 also featured my favorite performance from the year so far, a caveat I'm fairly certain isn't going to change much come six months from now.  The two are most certainly connected as Gerwig is Frances and Frances is Gerwig, a wonderful melding of actor and character and character and film.  With this, it brings a bit of sadness that Gerwig is likely unlikely not going to a favorite for a leading actress Oscar nomination come winter, and may even be but a longshot for the Indie Spirits, but in my book her joyous, witty and beguilingly profound creation is worthy of a Nobel Peace Prize for its brute honesty and natural joie de vivre.

What are your favorite performances from the first six months of 2013?    

Boozing Drivers in Space

The Memorial Day Weekend has come and the 2013 box office has finally bent thrust alive after a string of successes in the merry month of May and a gangbusters, franchise-fueled holiday weekend.  Here's the four day results:

1. Fast & Furious 6- $120 million
2. The Hangover Part III- $51.2 million / $63 million total
3. Star Trek Into Darkness- $47 million / $155.8 million total
4. Epic- $42.6 million
5. Iron Man 3- $24.3 million / $372.4 million total
6. The Great Gatsby- $17.0 million / $117.7 million total
7. Mud- $2.4 million / $15.0 million total
8. The Croods- $1.6 million / $179.6 million total
9. 42- $1.6 million / $91.4 million total
10. Oblivion- $1.0 million / $87.5 million total
11. Oz: The Great & Powerful- $0.8 / $232.4 million total
12. Pain & Gain- $0.8 / $48.7 million total
13. Frances Ha- $0.7 / 0.9 total (60 screens)

Further down:
Before Midnight- $0.3 (5 screens) --> per screen average of $64,400
Stories We Tell- $0.1 / $0.3 total (27 screens)
Fill the Void- $79,000 (3 screens)
We Steal Secrets: The Story of Wikileaks- $34,300 (4 screens)

What If "Frances Ha" Ruled the World...

I'm rather smitten with Frances Ha as I've previously mentioned.  What's engaging and almost revelatory about Noah Baumbach's new irony-soaked misfit comedy is that it's undeniably a very hopeful film.  Despite the fact that the leading character, named Frances, wonderfully played by Greta Gerwig in her finest hour (to date, for sure-- she's still quite young, but this will be a hard act to follow) is a fairly feckless woman going through a 21st century quarter century malaise.  She's an aspiring dancer at the age of twenty-seven, but really she's just an apprentice without much means for economic stability, she's romantically unattached (even rendered "undateable" by close friends) and doesn't even have a home of her own.  In fact, the entire conceit of Frances Ha is hinged on her mooching of friends and acquaintances as she hops around New York City with little else than the semi-false conviction she tells herself (and others) that it's all going to work out in the end.  And yet, the film is wistful and charming and utterly believable in spite of its post-modern, black and white filmed, Woody Allen-esque romanticism.  The film is certainly one of the few genuine highlights of the years so far, and will likely remain so by year's end.

I suppose one of the reason that I'm so taken with Frances Ha and its main character is because I instantly felt a sort of kinship to her in a way I haven't felt at the movies in quite a while.  This being the start of the summer movie season, that's rather miraculous in itself-- not that it's impossible to feel that way about grown men in tights, per se.  Both Frances and myself (in my distorted sense of reality, we're close friends) came of age in the same slice of time, and both of us yearn for a life filled with creativity, even with the nagging sense of perhaps not having the slightest clue on how to go about doing so, and the even more nagging sense that the tide of time is starting to mark the term "aspiring" as something rather pathetic.  For 27 (in full disclosure, I'm turned 28 last fall, but that matters not) is, of course, not old...not now at least, and not here.  For coming of age now feels likes a series of blunders and missteps and false starts more so than perhaps ever before, and that's not even accounting for the fact that, as a society, we've grown ever more complacent and feel some sense of accomplishment in the sense of discovering some new toy in our iGadget world.  The feelings of entitlement over such devices is a topic for another day.

Deeper than that, the quarter century crisis of 2013 in unlike those of before because it's informed by the last two decades of economic recessions, wars on terror, the FOX News Network, eight years of George W. Bush, and six so far of President Obama.  There's been enough of an outcry to arms and confusion and anger that has beset this generation, but unlike the baby boomers distraught and outraged by the corruption of the Nixon administration and the spurring of the counterculture, us spawns of the Reagan era have lied mostly dormant-- the most radical thing we may do is change our Facebook avatars to voice our support for same-sex marriage.  Surely, that's not completely true, but that safety net and security of living through digital currency has changed the way we attack when disturbing by things-- now it most commonly comes in the form of "like" buttons.  Is this out of depression, a feeling of hopelessness or just plain right laziness?  

Frances has moments throughout the film where she says outwardly that she should be doing something, but finds herself instead with drinking with her pals and in a genuine assessment of 21st quarter century ennui-- merely hanging out.  That's our bid for doing something.  Frances Ha digs beautifully and artfully into this generation, and it's sort of post-growing pains growing pains.  It's startling to realize that Mr. Baumbach himself is 43-years-old, and yet how acutely and accurately dissects the quirks of the iGeneration and even more startling that the film is such a deft and affectionate one that.  Frances is perhaps a totem for now.

She's certainly intelligent and assured, but consumed by that certain pull of frustration and constant negativity that plagues the very now of society.  It's certainly strange, and not exactly new at all, but more persistent now in its extremity that even in languid tranquility, there's a certain doom that seems to have won the war long ago.  For instance, anyone who has watched television in the past few weeks has been beholden to the natural terrors of Oklahoma and very man-made ones in Boston.  Multiply this anguish by years of coverage of Iraq and Afghanistan and Iran, northeastern storms dubbed "Frankenstorm" and Hurricane Katrina.  This past television year, many watched show Smash out of contempt...it was dubbed "hatewatching," but in a way, aren't we all just hatewatching the world these days?  It's a hard world outside and rationalizing the harshness of the scary events of the world can feel slightly suffocating if your private world is quite going the way you think it should.  Being that the cinema has long been my comfort, it's even harder to reconcile very real world terror depicted on the big screen for big popcorn thrill rides (see recent examples Iron Man 3 and Star Trek Into Darkness), but there's a respite in Frances Ha's wistful hopefulness in the land that suckiness built.

Frances Ha is far removed from politics, but Gerwig's characterization is filled with the very tics I see in myself and many I'm closest too.  It's a charming and disarming movie, charmingly staged and spliced with an off-the-cuff realness that the scenes all feel lived-in, not staged at all, but any twentysomething whose ever felt a sense of struggle can relate to it, I feel.  One day, people like myself and the other Frances' of the world will rule it.  Frances copes by going on with a soundtrack in her head and hope in her heart.  The most joyous scene of the film shows her flinging and flailing the streets of New York while Bowie's "Modern Love" soothes the background.  It's a tenderly transcendent moment, even whilst being a strictly only-the-movies thing.  All the frustrations and grief and ennui and anger is seemingly pushed aside by a wave of optimism and hope and regeneration that even when all is it at its worst, you can create and imagine a more perfect destiny.  I'd love to do that too.  Unfortunately, there are certain things that can only be deemed socially acceptable in quirky independent comedies; in the streets I would be deemed a lunatic dancing to imaginary tunes.

I'm not really sure where I'm going here.  I fear this might read like a hopeless foam at the mouth exercise without order or direction, which is actually in keeping with Frances' train of thought whether she's running and falling about in the streets or desperately trying to act like a sophisticate at grown up dinner parties.  The expression of a cinematic character speaking for a generation, even if in a especially specific way, or a personal attachment of a piece of art speaking to someone at just the right moment in life.  There's a moment in the film where Frances in near-apparent sincerity says, "sometimes it's good to do what you're supposed when you're supposed to do it." For the social misfit, that's pretty much as to the point as her character gets, but more importantly, something a film character comes along at the right moment in the passage of time for it become truly meaningful.  If I were 40-years-old or 17-years-old, Frances and her vaguely misguided plights and adventures likely would not have crossed my mind as something other than an on-the-surface diversion.  Now, and at this stage, she and film come across as nearly rebellious in so that in that you trudge the shit around and within and continue because someone's art is important, even if it's silly and has an audience restricted to but one, and of absolute value even if you're penniless.

Frances Ha

"27 is old though," so says a friend to Frances (Greta Gerwig) in the new comedy Frances Ha, the gorgeous, generous and utterly beguiling new film from director Noah Baumbach.  The comment isn't said out of cruelty or resentment, it's uttered as an off the cuff observation of which both is and isn't true in itself, but it does unsettle Frances in it's brash honesty and bequeath an aura of reflection.  Frances is an aspiring dancer living in New York City who hops from apartment to apartment because she has none to call her own.  She has troubles with money and no actual job nor stable romantic relationship.  She has her friends, her intellect and the hopefulness that many young people lie to themselves (and others) about in keeping on, especially when that means pursuing something creative.  She is somewhat a symbol of twenty-something complacency-- a subset of a hyper literate, somewhat arrogant and entitled, irony infused generation sorting out and coming to terms with the messiness of adulthood.  It would be wrong to describe Frances Ha as a coming of age tale of a hipster gal getting finally her shit together, because the film, in all its quirky dalliances, rings truth in the romanticized notion of growing into, as Frances might put, a "real" person, if not quite a successful one.

In actuality, most of the film is a series of vignettes of the trouble Frances gets herself into and how the she digs herself deeper into a hole of failures and embarrassments.  That sounds about right coming from the acidic and puckish intellectualism that makes up the structural DNA of Mr. Baumbach's filmography (The Squid & the Whale, Margot at the Wedding, Greenberg), but the wonder and joy of Frances Ha comes from its warmth, wit and generous spirit.  It's an optimistic and genuinely warm-hearted confection of real life trials and tribulations spun into a vacuum that looks and feels like a French New Wave comedy remade as a 1970s-era Woody Allen film.  Gerwig co-scripted Frances Ha with Baumbach and from all appearances the relationship has opened something special in both of them.

Shot in charming black and white by Sam Levy, Frances Ha may strike firstly as Manhattan for the new millennium, and surely the glow and wonder of the city plays a character in the film itself.  Especially since the film is divided not by seasons or something of that ilk, but instead by the various apartments Frances lives in throughout the film-- there's even title cards that appear with actual street names, and the burroughs and adjacent playgrounds for Frances add an ironic and wistful playfulness to the film.  The film opens in somewhat harmony as Frances lives with best friend Sophie (Mickey Sumner aka Sting's daughter who makes a bewitching presence.)  The two, which Frances dubs "the same" drink and sneak cigs out their windows and entertain with one another with the story of them, in which Sophie becomes a huge literary publishing icon and Frances a world famous dancer.  I believe all generations can relate to such liquor-infused dialogues between pals.  The two are a sort of odd couple of sorts but even in their playful eccentricity (Frances is charmed by the notion that others believe they are in a long term, sexless lesbian romance), there's an honesty and novel truth to their friendship, the kind of which that can only bloom and become eternal with the shared twenty-something failures.

Frances' world turns on when Sophie moves in with her boyfriend and cuddly play fighting turns real.  There's always that silly belief that certain blissful and seemingly cosmic friendships can never be disturbed, not even by the realities of growing up.  Frances (her last name is decidedly not Ha-- that is decided by charming final shot), ever quick on her feet, moves in with two male buddies-- Benji (Michael Zegen) and Lev (Girls' Adam Driver)-- in a pricy three bedroom apartment.  Again money becomes an issue-- this is a young woman who is clamors with excitement when a tax rebate arrives in the mail and gives her an opportunity to invite a boy to a real dinner (of which leads to comical blunder)-- and Frances continues her mooching.  This includes a holiday spent with parents in Sacramento, which surmises a lovely montage, and a quick weekend getaway to Paris (more destructive than romantic.)

Through it all, Frances Ha manages to never sway to the maudlin or depressing, even as Frances' opportunities seem to vanish from beneath her.  That's due to the strange and lovely gifts Gerwig invests into her singular character.  She's plays a dancer, but is not quite graceful, but utterly spirited.  She moves in an utterly balletic way however, whether teaching a class of young girls or running through the streets of New York in search of an ATM, or in the films most potent and rousing sequence, scrambling through the streets as Bowie's "Modern Love" blares most joyously on the soundtrack.  Gerwig creates the impression of a slapstick-prone slouch, but it's just the guise of a skillfully physical performer-- like a musician who makes a purposeful flub on purpose for effect.  It's enough to make Frances' career ambition both credible and a tad ridiculous, itself a truth for the many marginally talented sorts casting aside stability in pursuit of art.  The physicality is not merely present when Frances is prancing around however, as she adds a burst of energy and nuance to scenes where an ironic glare or shoulder shrug make everything just slightly more awkward than they should be.  It's a brilliant performance.  A

Musings & Stuff's Snarky Summer Movie Preview Part 1

The summer movie season is nearly underway.  A time where brain cells are freed and lulled in a state of submission.  Where the big movie studios offer their biggest, their noisiest, and more expensive offerings.  Like all franchises, I will put this is installments to make it easier to read, write, and with the hopeful intrigue for further visits.  Let's peruse the slate of this years selection:

MAY

MAY 3rd

Typically, a big title opens up the summer movie season in an attempt to start the battle of the numbers game in the right direction.  Last summers The Avengers was the opener of the season and like magical, tick-tocking clockwork, Iron Man 3 gets the mantle this year.  Picking up on the adventures of Tony Stark, following the mega-spectacle events he experienced as part of The Avengers, Iron Man 3 will certainly be one of the biggies of the year.  Director Shane Black (Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang) takes over director duties from Jon Favreau (who helmed the first two installments.)  The teasers and full-tilt media blitz campaign underway seem to highlight a darker turn for the hero, once and again portrayed by Robert Downey, Jr.  This time he's sparring against The Mandarian (Ben Kingsley.)  Guy Pearce and Rebecca Hall join the franchise alongside returning co-conspirators Gwyneth Paltrow (as love interest Pepper Potts) and Don Cheadle (as James Rhodes / War Machine.)  While the last Iron Man left something to be desired as it more than anything else felt like a soggy cog in the glut of the construction of The Avengers-- an ailment of sorts that plagued all the Marvel productions-- there's a certain interest that perhaps the third installment will get back to the frothy star vehicle charms that made the first Iron Man refreshing in its slippery self awareness.  

Black seems like a novel choice for tentpole captain.  After a successful screenwriting career in the early 1990s (Lethal Weapon), his star faded out in light of his bombastic offerings only to be redeemed with the indie satire Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang, which happened to also revive Downey, Jr.'s career.  That oddball, off-kilter match worked wonders the first time out, hopefully it can remain even under the less irony-filled machinations of comic book blockbustering.  Then again, this being the first film after the ultimate mega-ness that was The Avengers, there's a nagging thought that the entire Marvel universe may not have a plan of its own on a micro-character level or a macro-universe level.  Each offering since Iron Man 2 (including The Avengers) have felt similarly like elongated commercials for the next thing...where, exactly is it all heading?  I suppose there won't be a definitive answer until the disparate franchises start to dwindle in popularity.  Both Iron Man films prior have grossed north of $300 million so finality may a long way in coming.

Also opening: Things We Lost in the Fire and Oscar-winning In a Better World director Susanne Bier debuts Love Is All You Need, her romantic comedy starring Pierce Brosnan.  Olivier Assasyas (Carlos) has Something in the Air, a French drama that made the film festival rounds last year.  Finally, What Maisie Knew, a family drama starring Julianne Moore, Alexander Skarsgard and Steve Coogan, a modern adaptation of the Henry James novella of the same name opens from the directors of The Deep End, Scott McGehee and David Siegel.

"Frances Ha" Trailer

This may be just looking for failure, but based merely on the trailer alone, Frances Ha may just be my favorite film so far of 2013.  Greta Gerwig, who co-wrote the screenplay with director and paramour Noah Baumbach, stars as a neurotic, budding dancer in this black and white, only in New York comedy/drama.  Thankfully, it did earn nice notices from last years festival circuit.  We shall find out this May.