Happy Birthday to
Marcia Gay Harden
51 today
California girl Marcia continues to enliven otherwise middling films with her strong and prickly presence - The Mist was my first film to be reviewed here and her Mrs Carmody often haunts my darkest dreams - coming up will be the Tony Kaye directed Detachment where Marcia plays the principal to Adrein Brody's long term substitute teacher.
It's quite a quiet weekend, although frankly that's a good thing - I've been so busy that I've hardly had a time to stop and think; let alone got a chance to go to the cinema this weekend. I'll be letting you know all about it on Sunday with the personal news post (and what a post it will be). Still if I was going to the cinema this weekend I'd definitely be up for Drew Barrymore's directorial debut with Whip It.
I Am Love
Tilda Swinton gets a rare chance to lead a major film, albeit clearly European arthouse in it's feel. She plays a Russian immigrant in Italy married into a loveless and wealthy family who has an affair. Doubt it ends well.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●●●○○○○○
I Know You Know
I had spoken about this film back in November, when it was originally scheduled for release, but here's a chance to ignore it again. Robert Carlyle is a distant father who's son slowly works out he's a MI5 agent. Based on a true story.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●○○○○○○○
The Infidel
Gifted alternative comic David Baddiel's first movie script focuses on an Muslim father who shockingly finds out not only that he was adopted but that he was born Jewish. The trailer is very funny, but I worry that the hook is enough to sustain an hour and a half.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●○○○○○○○
Prince
At one point this Bollywood actioner was subtitled It's Showtime, but I very much doubt that helps explains the sci-fi tinged heist movie that the trailer indicates - nor does it explain why one of the girls on the poster doesn't just look like she's been photoshopped in, but that a cardboard cut-out of her has been photo-shopped in.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●○○○○○○○○
Shelter
Did anyone notice Julianne Moore and Jonathan Rhys-Meyers making this? All of Rhys-Meyers' multiple personalities are murder victims and Moore must find out why before the credits role. Like a knock-off of Identity, then.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●●○○○○○○
Whip It
If you like Roller derbys then you'll love this seventies throwback, with Ellen Page rebelling her middle class by joining the local team under the moniker Babe Ruthless. The great supporting cast includes director Drew Barrymore, Marcia Gay Harden and Juliette Lewis.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●●●●●○○○
And last week I missed:
Jawani Zindabaad
But I can't write anything about it at all as there are no reviews, trailers or plot descriptions that I can find...
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●○○○○○○○○
2007. Dir: Sean Penn. Starring: Emile Hirsch, Marcia Gay Harden, William Hurt, Catherine Keener and Vince Vaughn. ●●●●●
I won't be going to the cinema again until after my holiday so it's a number of random film reviews until then. First up was this smart and inventive biopic about the 21 year old Christopher McCandless (Hirsch) who gave away his college fund and led a life on the road, eventually escaping to the wilds in Alaska.
The film intercuts between 2 or 3 different time periods. The first, or last chronologically, is based around Chris' life in the wild, living in the Magic Bus (an abandoned vehicle in the Alaskan wilderness) and being completely self-sufficent. The second strand, which forms the largest proportion of the film, follows the previous 2 years as Chris leaves his parents and travels America, the third is the narration and flashbacks as witnessed by his sister Carine (Jena Malone). During those 2 years of wandering the earth, Chris encounters a number of other people who he alternatively learns from, and helps.
As with all films based on true events the structure, or at least the history, are already there. If this were an original narrative would director Penn have let it end the way it did, would the unresolved ties with the strings of encounters have been tied up, would Chris ever have understood the importance of family and love.
Instead we are forced to see how nature first entices McCandless then turns on him as thoroughly as his father used to beat his mother.
The performances across the board are incredible. Hirsch is captivating and utterly believable as the rich kid who's wise beyond his years, although Catherine Keener and Brian Dierker are the ones who will stay with me as a hippie couple coming to terms with their own sense of loss and showing Chris what love truly is. The film also features career highs from Vince Vaughn and Hal Holbrook.
The screenplay is a shade too literate, everyone is able to keep up with Chris' intellectualism and always say exactly what's on their mind, but this is a product of the road movie and keeps the plot moving.
The directorial choices of Penn are faultless from the structuring of the storylines to the occasion decision to break the fourth wall. And the use of Eddie Vedder's folk music soundtrack is inspired.
Of course I wanted to shout at McCandless, tell him not to go to Alaska, tell him to fall in love, have his heart broken, share life with as many people as possible. But then I can't, he has to learn his lessons himself, in the same way we all do and perhaps the greatest lesson McCandless learns is the one in writes in the margins of his Tolstoy novels: "Happiness only real when shared."
Happy Birthday to
Marcia Gay Harden
49 today
I like Marcia. If you remember from my The Mist review I was in awe of her performance. Saying that she does do over-exposure. Last year she was in 6 films released in the States, this year there are at least 3 projects due for completion.
2007. Dir: Frank Darabont. Starring: Thomas Jane, Marcia Gay Harden, Laurie Holden, Andre Braugher and Toby Jones. ●●●●○
There are many advantages to seeing a film like the Mist in the cinema. Primarily you can immerse yourself in the sound and the vision in a way that home cinema cannot compete with. The sheer scope of the monsters is revealed in a much better way. Mostly though there are occasions where the audience reactions cary you along with the action in extradinary ways. (Spoilers ahead).
In the Mist there are a few opportunities to laugh and there are plenty of times when you will collectively jump a little in your seats; mainly by the false scares (people tripping into things etc.). There was also a wonderful moment where the auditorium collective burst into a round of applause. If you've seen the film I'd love to know if it was the same for you, when mild-mannered deputy manager Ollie (Toby Jones) shoots the fanatical Mrs Carmody (Marcia Gay Harden) in the head were you whooping?
There is little plot in the film. A thick fog appears from nowhere (although it's probably a military experiment gone wrong) and houses beasties from another dimension. A group of disparate characters get holed up in a supermarket. Some of them die, some of them attempt to get out, some of them go a bit crazy.
The creatures are a mix of good animatronics and poor CGI and generally they look more interesting when partially obscured by the mist. The story is not really about what's outside the store though, it's much more interested in what's happening inside.
The strangers quickly form 3 groups. The first is led by our hero Thomas Jane (doing his best Tom Hanks impression) with his young son (Nathan Gamble, who you may remember from Babel). The second is a group of sceptics led by Andre Braugher, needless to say they don't last very long. And the third group is led by Marcia Gay Harden.
This group are the true monsters and none more so than Mrs. Carmody, a religious fanatic quoting bible verses and calling for expiation (atonement to God) through blood sacrifice. To begin with she is treated like a bit of a looney, but slowly more people turn to her for answers until she is able to whip up the mob and make then do her bidding. Including slaughtering a soldier (the unfeasibly gorgeous Sam Witwer) from the camp and almost killing our heroes as well. Mrs. Carmody is a frightening but believable character, we'd all like to imagine that we'd stand up to her, but if we look around at US and UK foreign policy, our steady erosion of civil libertis and a slow creep to the political right in the entire western world I think we can agree we probably wouldn't fight it as much as we'd like.
Frank Darabont has twice directed from Stephen King novellas and both efforts were very successful. I would say that this third collaboration comes somewhere in the middle - tenser and with more to say than the Green Mile but without the investment in the characters of Shawshank. The hand held style of camerwork is very effectively, especially in the intense nighttime siege where I really felt I was part of the battle.
A lot has been said about the changes between the book and the film especially the ending. Personally I feel Darabont made the right choice. He gives us an ending that's much more cinematic and tragic than the books "hope".
Overall The Mist is well worth forking out the price of a ticket. I can't wait to see the next time Marcia Gay Harden plays a role like this.
