The Twinkling of Tinseltown
May 12, 2016
Knight of Cups (2016).
D/W: Terrence Malick. DP: Emmanuel Lubezki. Starring: Christian Bale/Cate Blanchett/Natalie Portman/Wes Bentley/Teresa Palmer/Freida Pinto/Brian Dennehy/Imogen Poots/Cherry Jones.
I imagine filmmaker Terrence Malick as that charming yet introverted kid in the playground. So immersed in his imaginative world he mostly plays on his own. Every now and then letting another kid break into his barriers and run to keep up with the rules of creation in his mind. Malick’s last two films 2012’s To The Wonder and 2011’s The Tree of Life were released somewhat close to one another. Having worked on Knight of Cups for a few years now as well as another upcoming project supposedly titled Weightless, the reclusive director finally brings his signature beauty to Los Angeles.
Knight of Cups meanders along with Rick (Christian Bale) as he contemplates his failed relationships, apathy, family and existence in the city of Los Angeles. Cut up into chapters the film is almost a group of novellas mostly revolving around the introduction of different women. Pixie punk darling Bella (Imogen Poots), Rick’s ex-wife Nancy (Cate Blanchett), new ‘friend’ Helen (Freida Pinto), Australian stripper Karen (Teresa Palmer), and new married lover Elizabeth (Natalie Portman) are this collection of characters that move in and out of Rick’s life. All do well, but this is not a film with acting turns. Knight of Cups is movement and space, actors as bodies within Malick’s frame.
You hardly remember Bale’s characters name as the film has voice-over from multiple characters, very little dialogue, but tremendous amounts of sound. Characters address each other through voice-over in a story like manner. This might seem dream like in description, but it is rather more like a hazy state of in-between. Bale’s Rick seems to stand in rooms and absorb–lost in trails of thought. Knight of Cups is thus not a film concerned with story or acting or conflict, but rather about being.
Here Malick works again with cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki (The Revenant, Birdman, Gravity). There are plenty of gorgeous nature porn shots as well as souring landscapes of Los Angeles. The film is seduction in itself set in a city that circles many down the drain of money, sex, power and disastrous disengagement. Knight of Cups is more cohesive than say Tree of Life whose family melodrama felt out of sync with the scale of Malick’s concepts. Here the streamline is more focused. To say Malick is a visual storyteller is an understatement. He does not simply use images in service of a story, rather he builds the story out of images and sequences.
In other words, Knight of Cups is the visual equivalent to a Cormac McCarthy novel. Where McCarthy abandons quotation marks Malick rejects linear storytelling and standard narrative structure. The film forces you to enter into Rick’s state of mind. Like his previous work, you must bend, be patient and surrender. As a former Los Angeles resident Knight of Cups is a beautiful wander through the delusions of a high priced lifestyle sitting atop a gruesome underbelly. Most likely one will get out of the film what you bring to it. I certainty fell into Rick’s pangs, but as usual Malick is not for the non-believer.
A Golden Time For Love
November 27, 2015
Carol (2015).
D: Todd Haynes DP: Edward Lochman. W: Phyllis Nagy. Starring: Cate Blanchett/Rooney Mara/Sarah Paulson/Kyle Chandler/Jake Lacy/John Magaro. (NOTE: Based on the Patricia Highsmith novel originally titled The Price of Salt)
Every now and then a movie lives up to its hype. The buzz around Todd Haynes new film, Carol, has been strong since its debut at the Cannes Film Festival back in May. To most it is certainly, arguably, the film of the year. I would quite agree with my heart also still with Brooklyn.
Set in 1952/1953 New York the film follows Therese (Rooney Mara) who works in a department store as the Christmas holiday approaches. After an encounter at her shop counter with Carol (Cate Blanchett) the two women begin a slow mounting love affair that is set against the dissolution of Carol’s marriage to Harge (Kyle Chandler) and a custody battle over their daughter.
Mara’s Therese is all short bangs and blossoming independent womanhood, taking pictures of a world she’s still deciding if she’d like to blend into. Her chemistry with the elegant enchantress that is Blanchett’s Carol is subtle and sustains the film. She, and the audience with her, is caught in the glow of Blanchett’s mesmerizing turn. Blanchett balances the mother and the woman in her performance giving the struggle between societal duty, motherhood, and personal happiness and sexuality such precise sophistication and desperation it will make your heart break. She is seen through Therese’s camera, aware of her own image as much as we are aware of the palpable feeling of falling in love we experience.
Much can be gushed about Carol, but Sandy Powell’s costumes must be mentioned. A three time Oscar winning designer for Shakespeare in Love, The Aviator, and The Young Victoria, Powell elevates the mood and look of the film. From Therese’s pompom striped hat of her youth to the jewelry that jangles from Carol’s wrists above heavily lacquered fingernails, the world is alive in every detail. The look of the early 1950s is given a grainy haze by veteran cinematographer Edward Lachman and Haynes decision to shoot on 16mm. The pair have worked together on all of Haynes’ projects including the Mildred Pierce series for HBO set in a similar time like his film Far From Heaven. Carol is all its own and is given warmth and depth by the 16mm decision and is heightened by a great score from Carter Burwell.
At the core of this film is a lesbian love story, but unsurprisingly its universality still rings true over fifty years after Highsmith’s novel was first published. Yet it is so important that a same sex couple story will get a wide release platform and hopefully awards attention. A flawless film, Carol drops a gauntlet for every other filmmaker to pick up. Go see it the minute you can.
A New Malick Moment
November 25, 2015
Terrence Malick returns with a new film about the disillusionment of Hollywood starring an American accented Christian Bale. Like a Bret Easton Ellis novel, Bale falls through this trailer setting up a story that could be something different for this reclusive director of Tree of Life and others.
Knight of Cups
Bibbity Bobbity Blah
April 1, 2015
Cinderella (2015).
D: Kenneth Branagh. DP: Haris Zambarloukos. W: Chris Weitz. Starring: Lily James/Cate Blanchett/Richard Madden/Helena Bonham Carter/Derek Jacobi/Nonso Anozie/Stellan Skarsgard/Sophie McShera/Holliday Granger/Ben Chaplin/Hayley Atwell.
This spring Disney brings another of their beloved royalties to the big screen in the live action version of Cinderella. All glass and little substance, the film is clearly geared towards children and lacks much to make it memorable.
Well known Shakespearean maven and now director, Kenneth Branagh (Thor & Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit) tackles this literal live action rendition of Cinderella with little creativity and far less wit. His fairy tale world looks too commercially cooky and lacks much depth from its central character. Lily James, mostly known from Downtown Abbey, is beautiful, blonde, but a little to saccharine for my tastes. Ella, as she is known prior to her nickname, has a fierceness of character despite the loss of her family but somehow is cloaked with too much breathless adulation on James’ part.
The script from Chris Weitz lifts so much from the beloved 1950 animated version that oftentimes you are left wishing that it was the film you were watching. Right down to the mice, which are incorporated here. Branagh and his cinematographer do bring nice breath and scope to the larger scenes, the dancing scene at the ball is particularly hypnotic. This can also be attributed to Cinderella’s ballgown, made to swish and swirl like the original animated image, it is mesmerizing. What is not is the sadly de-beareded Richard Madden who has lost all his presence as this prince. His Rob Stark from Game of Thrones was a force whereas this white panted prince is not.
Helena Bonham Carter, who plays the fairy godmother, narrates the film, which gives it a storybook quality that is distinctly geared towards children. This is where the film diverges from last year’s similar project, Maleficent, which was able to appeal to a much broader audience. One without children, for example. Maleficent is superior in other ways as its more creative approach to a well known tale brings new life whereas Cinderella falls quite literally flat. This is also the fault of the story as Cinderella is often a victim of circumstance and can do little to change her own path if you will. What message does this send to this children’s audience, really? Another post could be dedicated to just this.
Cinderella in general is faulted with a lot of earnestness and good nature. The lines “have courage, be kind” told Ella by her dying mother, played here by Hayley Atwell, are repeated so often they lose all meaning. The sequence with the most wit and character belongs to Carter’s appearance as the venerable fairy godmother. Carter brings her expert twinkle to a moment that is so iconic it could be boring. Rather her bibbity bobbity boo moments lift Lily James out of the cheerful glib and breathe some humor into making a pumpkin into a carriage. Even menacingly statuesque Cate Blanchett as the evil stepmother cannot compete with her. Blanchett does her best with some limp lines, nonetheless striking in her costumes and dismissive of her daughters which gives much needed comic relief. It is just simply not enough to save this over-produced project, complete with crappy pop song over ending credits.
Cinderella Comes Our Way…
January 3, 2015
Get ready for Disney’s newest installment. Catch up on my reviews of Maleficent and Alice in Wonderland as well!