Cyrus

July 16, 2010

Cyrus (2010) **1/2
Directed by Jay Duplass & Mark Duplass

My tweet:

Cyrus (2010)- All the laugh out loud moments are at the service of a false, lazy and empty movie. **1/2 out of 5

Other thoughts:

I'm not yet fully convinced that the low budget genre known as mumblecore has the potential to leave a lasting impression on cinema history. I've only seen a few mumblecore movies, but I've always been left wanting more. The idea that the actors are allowed to improvise their dialogue and to some extent play around with the direction of the narrative seems intriguing in theory, but in practice, when we see actors making it up as they go along, aren't we simply seeing a lazy final product? After all, masterpieces often take a great deal of effort. When I go to the movies, I want to be respected as a viewer enough that I feel as if I'm seeing everyone's best effort. Mumblecore by definition almost seems bound to provide first or second take sequences that aren't as good as they could have been if they were scripted well. Perhaps this is the flaw in the genre--success results by accident.

Even with some quality moments, it's hard to translate fractured off-the-cuff scenes into an entire film that feels cohesive. Cyrus is the perfect example of this with quite a few gags that are truly hilarious. Jonah Hill and John C. Reilly are both gifted comedians, and they're able to milk the comedy out of the awkward plot quite well. The problem lies in the fact that Cyrus as a whole is meant to be quite serious and sentimental, and though the comedy works, the serious, sentimental elements come off artificial and inorganic.

The plot centers around a man named John who's been divorced a number of years. He's played by Reilly, an actor who deserves more leading roles. When his ex-wife, played by Catherine Keener, tells him that she's getting remarried, he doesn't take it well which propels her to invite him to a party the next night where he meets an attractive woman named Molly played by Marisa Tomei. They hit it off and things are going swimmingly until he finds out that she has a 22 year old son named Cyrus, played by Hill. This mother/son relationship goes beyond extremely close, which makes the addition of John into the equation difficult for everyone, especially Cyrus who begins to act out in pretty significant ways.

As I said before, the comedy is very funny. Connected with that though is one of the biggest problems of the movie--namely Jonah Hill. He chooses to play Cyrus with no nuance whatsoever--so much so that he comes off as a bit of a sociopath. At the end, the audience is expected to believe that his character has grown in these profound ways, but Hill's performance doesn't leave room for any expectation that growth is possible with Cyrus, who's pretty much a monster in Hill's hand, albeit a pretty hilarious monster.

The same issue also arises from the way in which the relationship between Molly and Cyrus is played out. Molly is a bad mother, and Cyrus' antisocial tendencies are her fault considering some of the things she allows him to do, which included home schooling him and allowing him into the bathroom when she's showering. The shower scene in particular is very funny but at the expense of the ability of the audience to believe that the ending is possible with such screwed up individuals.

Overall, the film Cyrus feels unfinished, which is precisely my problem with mumblecore as a whole. Who wants to spend money on a first draft? I'll keep hoping for a truly satisfying example of mumblecore--last year's Humpday was pretty close. However to be convinced, I'm going to need a movie that feels complete. I, as a filmgoer, deserve only the best.

Stalag 17

July 13, 2010

Stalag 17 (1953) ****1/2
Directed by Billy Wilder

My tweet:

Stalag 17 (1953)- Even with its annoying goofiness, Wilder's POW drama is a truly sad and great achievement. ****1/2 out of 5

Other thoughts:

"The horror! The horror!"

These immortal words spoken by Martin Sheen in Apocalypse Now couldn't seem farther from the spirit of Stalag 17, a prisoner of war comedy/drama that's more like Hogan's Heroes than Saving Private Ryan.

The best film I can think to compare it to is Robert Altman's MASH, which came out seventeen years later. Both films make light of unimaginably brutal situations that stem from war. Stalag 17 turns a POW barracks into a summer camp cabin with Christmas parties, horse races and even a bar. Yet, these luxuries are tainted by the fact that they're simply coping methods in order to give these soldiers some sense of normalcy and hope. The Christmas party has the men dancing with each other because the only interaction they have with women is through a telescope pointed towards a shower house where all they can see are steamy windows. The horse races involve rats with toe tags on a small make shift racetrack. The bar serves putrid drinks that pass muster as long as they don't turn you blind. The men of Stalag 17 are walking a fine line between dignity and total insanity.

There are bad people willing to manipulate the prisoners' vulnerabilities, and it's clear from the beginning that one of the men is giving information to the Germans which results in the execution of two prisoners who try and escape. The suspicion and ultimate accusation is understandably directed towards Sgt. J.J. Sefton, played by William Holden in the role that won him his only Oscar. Sefton single-handedly runs both the rat race and the bar, charging the prisoners their Red Cross cigarette rations as payment. He uses the cigarettes to get himself better food and even a trip to the side of the POW camp with the women. Clearly, Sefton has turned his back on his fellow soldiers in order to focus on his own self-aggrandizement. What's to stop him from sliding down the slippery slope to giving up the lives of American soldiers if it benefits him? Ultimately, we do learn who the snitch is, how he communicates with the Germans and what his motives are. The climax of the film involves a newly captured Lieutenant who's about to be executed for blowing up a train.

There's a pathetic sadness to the lives these POWs lead which lingers on the sequences of broad comedy. At times, the jokes go too far and become singularly cloying. Take for example a messenger soldier who delivers his lines with the most annoyingly shrill timbre in his voice. Two soldiers in particular ham it up for the screen, which isn't helped by the fact that they're rarely funny. Yet, I'm not sure the film is intending to provoke belly laughs like a Marx Brothers movie. The humor within is dark, and the moments when the jokes fall flat add a level of discomfort which helps keep the viewer from truly settling into this awful world of injustice.

Stalag 17 is entertaining, but its entertainment is mixed with just enough horrible evil bubbling below the surface which elevates the stakes of the plot. The guards might seem stupid and goofy, but they're Nazis. These soldiers aren't the only people imprisoned by the Nazis, and this fact adds to the drama which in turn dampens the effect of the comedy. Thankfully, the drama delivers.

The Apartment

July 11, 2010

The Apartment (1960) *****
Directed by Billy Wilder

My tweet:

The Apartment (1960)- (second viewing) One of the great movies about loneliness ever made. ***** out of 5

Other thoughts:

Someone recently called me a giver. I can understand why considering the context in which she said it. A couple of weeks ago, I took a web page design course with a bunch of teaching colleagues of mine. I was the youngest person in the class by about ten years, and though I'd never used Dreamweaver, I had done some web page stuff with this blog, so the world wasn't completely new to me like it was to pretty much everyone else in the class. The teacher, who is another colleague, usually teaches this course to high school students who live their lives with technology. The class full of adults that I was in needed a lot of time to master the concepts, and they needed to ask a lot of questions. Not to brag, but I was always the first to finish, and rather than sit there and watch time pass, I was more than willing to go around and help out others who asked. By the end of the week-long class, I was spending hours helping out other people...so much so that I was one of the last to actually complete my final task. Another colleague who was getting the concepts pretty fast kept her mouth shut about the fact that she was finished, thereby alleviating her from having to help out other people. When I asked her if she was finished and why she didn't help me out with other people, she said that I, unlike her, am a giver.

I'll concede that I perhaps got taken advantage of in the course because of my niceness, but I can confidently say that I'm nowhere near the pushover of C.C. Baxter, played by Jack Lemmon, in Billy Wilder's Best Picture Oscar winner from 1960, The Apartment. Here's a man who lets married men use his apartment at night in order to have somewhere to go with their mistresses. Baxter vacates the premises during these ordeals, which often requires that he stick around at his work until ridiculously late hours waiting to call his apartment his own once again. Baxter's a push over, and he rationalizes everything by convincing himself that these favors will be good for his career. In reality, though, Baxter doesn't have the guts to stand up for himself and say no.

Eventually, he does get a promotion with the help of Mr. Sheldrake (Fred MacMurray), a married executive, in exchange for Sheldrake's use of the apartment with an elevator girl named Fran Kubelik (Shirley MacLaine). Baxter has taken a liking to Fran as well, but when he learns of her fling with Sheldrake, he ends up heartbroken. Ultimately, Sheldrake, Fran and Baxter's lives all cross paths when Sheldrake breaks up with Fran at Baxter's apartment, which causes Fran to attempt suicide. Baxter then must nurse Fran back to health.

Here's Baxter in a situation with a girl he likes who's passed out in his bed. Clearly, Baxter could do a lot of pretty awful things to her, but his decency shines forth as he truly begins to fall for this sad, naive young woman. It's through virtue that Baxter learns to grow a backbone, though it might all be for nothing when Sheldrake gets caught by his wife and turns to Fran for companionship.

Yet, The Apartment isn't just about Baxter becoming his own man; it's also about Fran coming to learn that she's better than simply being someone a married man can go to when he's bored at home with his wife. This is one of the great character studies of all time, and it's striking how much this film is aware of the sex life of adults. There's no sex in the film, but everyone in the movie except Baxter is clearly having sex, and they all rationalize their actions so they don't have to think about the people they're hurting when they treat other people simply as objects for their pleasure.

Decent, insecure individuals get hurt when people succeed in manipulating them for their own personal benefit. Baxter and Fran are the ones who are taken advantage of, and thankfully they find each other due to tragic circumstances. Many think of The Apartment as a light, pleasant film, but like many of Wilder's films, it's very dark considering that Fran absolutely would be dead had it not been for Baxter. Also, Baxter would probably be perpetually alone living in ever increasing self-loathing had it not been for Fran.

Baxter and Fran are both profoundly imperfect, but they're also eminently likable. Few characters in film history merit the audience rooting for their happiness more than the two of them. This is due to two important factors. First, the performances of Lemmon and MacLaine are so fantastic that the two ought to be given a great deal of credit. Baxter specifically could have been played as a moping nitwit, but Lemmon goes in a completely different direction with a performance that's full of energy and his signature physicality. His is a theatrical performance, yet Lemmon rarely goes over the top.

Second, though we might not want to admit it, it's easy to see ourselves in the insecurities of Baxter and Fran. They represent those parts of ourselves and our relationships that we wish could be different. It's a tough world we live in, and these are difficult lives we lead. Both are themes all too present in Wilder's work. We know all too well the fears and disappointments of these two protagonists.

The Apartment is one of the more astute dark comedies ever made. It's so tender, joyful and devastating at the same time. There's no happily ever after for Baxter and Fran. That would be too simple for such emotionally troubled individuals. The best we can hope for is that the rest of the day they spend together playing gin will be free of the turmoils that have plagued them throughout the film.