Whispering Little Nothings & Somethings In Our Ears
March 22, 2015
Inherent Vice (2014).
D/W: Paul Thomas Anderson. DP: Robert Elswit. Starring: Joaquin Phoenix/Josh Brolin/Katherine Waterston/Benicio Del Toro/Eric Roberts/Owen Wilson/Jena Malone/Serena Scott Thomas/Joanna Newsom/Maya Rudolph/Reese Witherspoon. (Based on Thomas Pynchon’s novel of the same name)
Maybe it’s because I love to read detective fiction? Maybe it’s because I used to live in LA? Maybe it’s because I find Joaquin Phoenix an anomaly no matter what he does? But, I really liked Inherent Vice.
Paul Thomas Anderson’s 2012 film, The Master, was a slog for me. Despite being intense and methodical, it was also long, dense, and moved at a snail’s pace. His new film, based on Thomas Pynchon’s novel, demands more attention as its crime story is brilliantly foggy and told through a haze of a smoker’s sense of memory as Doc (Phoenix) takes a private eye case with personal connections. But can a man do when his old flame shows up at his place needing help with her new one? Especially when she looks like newcomer Katherine Waterston.
Anderson has never been committed to straight forward narrative story telling, which is part of the challenge of enjoying his films. Inherent Vice is not an exception to this. The film demands your attention from start to finish not just as a piece of visual work, but as a piece of sound. Anderson forces you to lean in and listen intently to whispered conversations veiled by a stoner’s point of view. Compounded with a deliciously retro soundtrack and sly narration the film is not that hard to follow and more enjoyable for those who their PIs a little shaken.
Inherent Vice also luckily has fabulous costumes from Mark Bridges whose worked on all of Anderson’s films and incidentally also costumed Fifty Shades of Grey. Reese Witherspoon’s small role alone left me imagining a follow up film about her and that hair. Reese is one of many smaller roles with namey actors, Benecio Del Toro has a great scene rescuing Doc from the police station. Phoenix is certainly the pulse of the film, fluidly melting into stoner’s world complete with sideburns and sandals. His spars with Det. “Bigfoot” (Josh Brolin) are hysterical and ground the film for certain scenes.
Although I cannot speak to the novel’s adaptation, Inherent Vice has a lush sense of place with Venice acting as a kind of breathing heaping hot spot left on a couch after a stoner has been slumped in for days. The longer I take with the film the more I think about its maze like storytelling that I wonder if the rest of Anderson’s work is ready for a revisit. Inherent Vice is clearly not for everyone and I’m okay with that.
The Right Amount of Yes
January 22, 2015
Wild (2014).
D: Jean-Marc Vallée. W: Nick Hornby. DP: Yves Bélanger. Starring: Reese Witherspoon/Laura Dern/Gaby Hoffman/Thomas Sadoski/Keene McRae/Michiel Huisman/Kevin Rankin. (Based on Cheryl Strayed’s memoir of the same name)
Setting out on the Pacific Crest Trail in 1995, beginning at Mojave and ending at the Bridge of the Gods, writer Cheryl Strayed attempted to literally walk the pain out of her life. This tremendous feat resulted in not only a new life, but a successful memoir and now a film.
Producing Wild under her Pacific Standard banner, Reese Witherspoon steps deftly into a role and world she championed through buying its source material. Witherspoon is a great balance of blonde Americana and twenties wayward whose grief over her mother’s death wrecks her life. She plays Strayed with the right amount of sugar you can imagine works to hide the grit inside. You can clearly see why this woman renamed herself Strayed.
Having read Strayed’s memoir I can say that Wild embraces its visceral quality into a cathartic and captivating film. All adaptations are difficult, but this one provides specific challenges as for the majority of the book Strayed is alone and grappling with her own fears and memories. Nick Hornby, in his first screenplay since 2009’s An Education, tackles this with aplomb. He is able to balance flashbacks, voiceover, inner monologue, and dialogue while synthesizing fellow hikers and trails into compelling elements that don’t merely feel like plot mile markers. Kudos must be given to the sound, music and editorial departments in blending music, voices, and sounds to generate meaning with and without images.
What was fearless about Cheryl’s journey was not only hiking this trail, but also going it alone as a woman. Witherspoon is mostly on her own here as well, though Laura Dern deftly supports her in her mother flashbacks scenes. Michiel Huisman is a delicious choice for Jonathan and is a nice contrast to Thomas Sadoski’s Paul. Gaby Hoffman, in a much deserved career resurgence also surfaces as one of Strayed’s friends. To be fair, she still has my heart from the Veronica Mars Movie.
Director Jean-Marc Vallée, known for Dallas Buyer’s Club, keeps this tight, reminding the audience that the story lies mostly in Strayed’s head not in the expansive landscape. Her hunger, thirst, and pain is on Witherspoon’s body yes, but is complimented by a camera without conventionality. Cinematographer, Yves Bélanger, evokes both his past films (his other being 2012’s Laurence Anyways) and is able to handle all the differently leveled moments in the script. Wild is genuinely not to be missed either in book or screen form. It remind you that even a little bravery goes a long way.
10 Spring Must Reads for Moviegoers
March 3, 2011
1. Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen. Out in April, this adaptation will star Robert Pattinson and Reese Witherspoon. Hoping that it will be both better than the Twilight series for Pattinson and better than the 2004′s Vanity Fair adaptation Witherspoon was in, we can all breathe a bit easier knowing how well put together the book is. Also, there is an actual reason to have an elephant in this one.
2. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. Really is this necessary? I don’t care how prolific it wants to be, lets put it to rest. Just like Austen. Let’s have a generation that learns the book before the film. Still mad at Jamie Bell.
3. Atlas Shrugged (Part 1) by Ayn Rand. Set for an April 15th release. Such a massive undertaking with a somewhat unknown director. Still on my to read list, but safe to say itll be a slog as they are cutting the book into more than one film.
4. Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows Part II by J.K. Rowling. In theaters this summer. No argument needed. If you haven’t read any, you have a couple of months before the first part of the final chapter comes out. Get on it. Now.
5. Mr. Popper’s Penguins by Roald Dahl. June 17. If you didn’t read this as a child, you truly missed out. I don’t know how I feel about the story changes and the casting of Jim Carrey, but the only way to know is to see it.
6. One Day by David Nicholls. Set for a July release, this film stars Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess as former college sweethearts who visit each other every year to see where they are in their lives. On my to read list. But shot in London, Edinburgh and Paris…hmmm.
7. Snow Flower & The Secret Fan by Lisa See. July 2011. Also still on my to read list. Hugh Jackman stars in a story set in 19th century China and centered on the lifelong friendship between two girls who develop their own secret code as a way to contend with the rigid cultural norms imposed on women.
8. The Help by Kathryn Stocket. Set for an August 2011 release starring Easy A‘s Emma Stone, who can also be seen in the next Spiderman film.
9. On the Road by Jack Kerouac. In post production.
10. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson. David Fincher is directing the first American-Hollywood version of this series starring Rooney Mara of Social Network craziness.