Drive It Like You Stole It
May 26, 2016
Sing Street (2016).
D/W: John Carney. D: Yaron Orbach. Starring: Ferdia Walsh-Peelo/Lucy Boyton/Jack Reynor/Maria Doyle Kennedy/Aidan Gillen/Mark McKenna/Conor Hamilton/Karl Rice/Ian Kenny/Percy Chamburuka/Ben Carolan/Don Wycherley/Kelly Thornton.
A Sundance Film Festival hit, John Carney’s new film Sing Street is here at last courtesy of the heavy hitters of the Weinstein Company. Carney writes and directs again and this time he might be at his best.
The 2007 film Once stole film goers hearts and took the Oscar for best original song. Carney’s Irish busker/hoover-fixer-sucker guy played by Glen Hansard wrote most of the songs and continue to make music with Marketa Irglova. This was followed by 2013’s Begin Again, which sported more star wattage with Keira Knightley as the songwriter girlfriend of a singer (Adam Levine) whose gotten his break. Her reluctant friendship with messy music producer Dan (Mark Ruffalo) leads her to make her own album all recorded in the outdoors of New York City. Sense a pattern yet?
With Sing Street Carney returns to his native Ireland in 1985 in certain tough economic times when young people were emigrating to London for a new start. As the poster claims the basic log-line is boy meets girl, girl is unimpressed, boy makes band. Our boy is new face Ferdia Walsh-Peelo whose parents are forced to switch him to a cheaper school to cut costs. Terrorized at this Christian Brothers academy he notices Raphina (Lucy Boynton) who hangs out across the street. He gets her digits when he asks her to appear in his music video for his band. Now he is tasked with building a band with his school mates and learning from his wiser stoner brother (Jack Reynor) how to write songs and win the girl.
Sing Street succeeds in contextualizing the band in a fun and varied music time period. The 1980s and the dawn of the music video are necessary influences on the look of the film. The homemade footage cut in not only encourages nostalgia and laughter, but is a strategic precursor to the more polished videos later. At first imitation grips the boys, but Walsh-Peelo’s Connor slowly brings his songwriting forward. Carney balances the band’s genesis with Connor’s school hazing and parents’ imminent to divorce. Their fighting is heard through walls so we only see the brilliant Maria Doyle Kennedy a few times as Connor’s mother, but the couple remain uninterested in their kids lives.
Like his previous films, Carney is clever to hide his musical numbers in realism for modern audiences. Unlike musical adaptations like Into the Woods, Sing Street works more like a musical biopic. Connor’s songwriting sessions and band rehearsals blend to create numbers that appear to move the plot along, when in fact they merely allow you to enjoy the music. The specific use of a dream sequence to illustrate Connor’s ideas for a music video is a clever excuse to play an entire song under a disguise. This song ‘Drive It Like You Stole It’ is the clear tent pole original song and is a clever catchy riff on one of Reynor’s lines. In modern musicals the stage continues to be a site for character expression that could not be said otherwise. Music allows Connor to share his feelings for Raphina, even in cassette tape form, and this works.
Sing Street is ultimate fun and it will be hard for anyone not to laugh or jam along. Carney hand picked his group of young band mates with rosy-cheeked Walsh-Peelo looking every bit the man-child he is. His awe struck looks at Boynton’s Raphina build a chemistry that is awkward yet deliciously believable. There is a whole kissing sequence that will make your heart burst and cringe at the same time. Each kid brings a fresh innocence to the story and builds such hope in the music and story it is absolutely infectious. Even Reynor, who I have only seen in a forgettable Transformers film, is effective. A common phrase heard about writing is to ‘write what you know.’ Well as an Irish child of the 1980s John Carney certainly does just that and I am ready to watch it again!
Straight to the Vein
May 8, 2016
Green Room (2016).
D/W: Jeremy Saulnier. DP: Sean Porter. Starring: Patrick Stewart/Anton Yelchin/Imogen Poots/Alia Shawkat/Joe Cole/Callum Turner/Mark Webber/Eric Edelstein/Macon Blair.
Unlike The Witch‘s subtle historical horror, the new film Green Room plugs you into an amp and drags you along for a wild ride. After doing a festival circuit the film was bought by A24 prior to its Toronto and Sundance appearances. A good piece of horror fun, Green Room is perfect antidote to the big studio tent-poles who are slowly removing personal horror from violence.
Green Room centers on a heavy rock band that flies under the radar, shirking social media in the name of true music. Stealing gas and living literally hand to mouth they reluctantly take a gig to make some extra cash to finish up their tour. Off the group then goes and arrives at a Neo-Natzi esq type club. After their set they discover a stabbing victim in the green room and become embroiled in a cat/mouse trap with the owner as they attempt to wait for the police to arrive.
Cinematographer by trade, director/writer Jeremy Saulnier handles Green Room with confidence. His 2013 film, Blue Ruin, garnered festival buzz premiering at Cannes. Here the trick is clearly keeping his characters and his audience in the dark. The film keeps a good pace and the cat/mouse story line works because there is never an attempt to explain (other than basics) why the events must occur. The unexplained breeds the panic of the group. The few reasons given are not the most inventive, but the core of Green Room is certainly the wrong place/wrong time of the group and it works.
The club owner/head honcho Darcy is played by veteran Patrick Stewart. With his eerily calm delivery of most lines he seems like a cat ready to pounce whose temper every now and then betrays him. Stewart’s general good aura gives the cult/Neo-Natzi group a weight that helps the film. The band has good chemistry with each other with Anton Yelchin’s Pat inadvertently becoming the lead. His simpering boyishness is a good contrast to the bullies in the club yet echoes cult side kick Gabe (Macon Blair) ineptitude at the physical. Imogen Poots hair and non showering look seems to have finally found its place with her performance as Amber. Her exasperation translates well.
Ultimately Green Room gives the gratuitous violence of the horror genre some shape and form. There is some inventive use of duck tape that is quite nauseating. The film is full of turns so will keep your heartbeat going and has a great final countdown sequence that is not without humor. It does not have the style of The Witch or even the performances of 10 Cloverfield Lane, but it has a fresh energy that allows its characters to keep fighting. A solid horror flick probably best watched at night, take it from someone who saw it at 11 AM!
Jeepers Creepers
April 20, 2016
The Witch (2016).
D/W: Robert Eggers. DP: Jarin Blaschke. Starring: Anya Taylor-Joy/Ralph Ineson/Kate Dickie/Harvey Scrimshaw/Ellie Grainger/Jonas Dawson.
Much chatted about The Witch has finally hit theatres after its premiere back in 2015 at the Sundance Film Festival. Picked up by Universal for release here in the UK and by A24 in the US, the film has become the horror film of the year. Let’s get one thing straight first. As someone who avoids what is normally lumped into the genre label of horror, this film barely cuts it. Modern notions of horror lend me to think of slashers, which has created franchises like the Saw films. Rather The Witch is old fashioned suspense, nail bites, and the right dose of fright that makes it memorable.
The Witch is written and directed by newcomer Robert Eggers who hails from a costume and production design background. This is immediately clear from the color palette and textures that Eggers knows how to build mood. His film centers on a family of banished Puritans who are forced to build a new farm outside of the safety of their New World plantation settlement after the father’s, William (Ralph Ineson), religious teachings are deemed too much. Working his children in God’s name his eldest daughter Thomasin (Anya Taylor-Joy) turns the family into turmoil when her baby brother is snatched on her watch. The mother Katherine (Kate Dickie), stricken with grief, begins a slow unraveling that pits religion against the supernatural.
Cloaked in a reliance and service to God, the family also speaks in an Old English tongue that evidently was taken or adapted from primary source texts prior to the famed Salem Witch Trials. Immediately this lends the film a storybook quality, but one of nightmares rather than fairy tales. The woods next to the farm are seen mostly in long shot or close up and deemed forbidden to the children. This is not the land of Harry Potter’s Forbidden Forest rather its one that warps the senses and brings original sin into the light.
Young English actress Taylor-Joy is a captivating center for the film. At moments her modernness cracks to the surface, but overall she handles the Old English well. Dickie and Ineson, both graduates of the world of HBO’s Game of Thrones, are balanced well in the script. Neither faith seems too disturbing when placed in relief to the other and the family’s imminent survival.
The unilateral belief of original sin is the crux of The Witch. Thomasin, with her ‘appearances of womanhood,’ appears to somehow invite the witch of the woods into being or is certainly blamed for it. The congruence of womanhood/sin/Satan/temptation is at play, but the film roots in unnervingly realistic and ritualistic ways that allow the imagination to see more than the eye. Its why the original Halloween still works. For the first half an hour the audience experience a stalking. It is all in the pacing and The Witch creeps along without revealing much. Trust me, we would not like it if it did.
This is For All the Girls When They Have Grown
August 21, 2015
The Diary of a Teenage Girl (2015).
D/W: Marielle Heller. DP: Brandon Trost. Starring: Bel Powley, Alexander Skarsgard, Kristen Wiig, Christopher Meloni, Abby Wait, Madeleine Waters, Austin Lyon, Margarita Leveiva. Based on Phoebe Gloeckner’s 2002 novel The Diary of a Teenage Girl: An Account in Words and Pictures.
Another Sundance darling is making its transatlantic appearance in cinemas. The Diary of a Teenage Girl is not to be missed. Writer and director Marielle Heller first adapted Gloeckner’s novel into a stage play. A self declared labor of love, Heller handles the material deftly and presents a first feature that is nuanced, complex and hybrid, like its source material.
The film follows Minnie, played by British newcomer Bel Powley, as she handles being fifteen and losing her virginity to her mom’s boyfriend Monroe (Alexander Skarsgard). Telling her story into microphone set into a tape deck, she recounts her experiences while the film takes us forward with the events that transpire through the affair. Minnie is a budding cartoonist like Gloeckner, and the film incorporates animation and drawings like the novel. These sequences and additions work seamlessly and help visualize a story told through Minnie’s eyes.
Thankfully, The Diary of a Teenage Girl deals with its subject and illegal underage affair deftly and tenderly. Powley is able to play a spunky fifteen whose body language literally straddles the world of children and adulthood. Her voice-over avoids sugary saturation and rather fluctuates with the intensities of first sexual experiences. Skarsgard handles Monroe well, not letting the relationship sink into predator land. Rather Skarsgard, who’s best performance yet is 2012’s What Maise Knew, gives sexuality and life to a man clearly at odds with himself. He is matched well with Kristen Wiig as Minnie’s mom. More a figure and sometimes an event than an active parent, Wiig’s vain Charlotte balances the adolescent wanderings of her daughter. She seems to not have grown up yet either.
The Diary of a Teenage Girl is set in 1976 San Francisco, which provides a specific moment in American history with drugs, fashion, and more. The film has a terrific sense of place, and Jonah Markowitz’s production design is layered and alive. The use of color is fabulous; it’s hard to forget the crushed velvet mustard colored blanket on Monroe’s bed. For a first time costume director, who is Heller’s sister-in-law, Carmen Grande is on point without pastiche. The look of the film is topical, not a bad moment for its marketing.
Here in the UK, the film is rated 18 and over. A fascinating contradiction to the fact it is told by a fifteen year old. Somehow ‘strong sex,’ which is listed as the only reason for the rating, prevents teenagers from actually seeing the film; whereas violence is nearly thrown at children in films rated PG. Compared to typical teen genre films, The Diary of a Teenage Girl actually works towards communicating the complexities of any teenage experience, especially a sexual one. (I think Perks of Being a Wallflower handled this well too). Certain things are universal yes, but certain films deal with characters, not archetypes, who make mistakes like we all do–blood stains and all.
A Little Sense of Wonder
July 6, 2012
Safety Not Guaranteed (2012).
D: Colin Trevorrow. DP: Benjamin Kasulke. W: Derek Connolly. Starring: Aubrey Plaza/Jake Johnson/Mark Duplass/Karan Soni/Kristen Bell/Mary Lynn Rajscub/Jenica Bergere.
Every so often it is important for main stream movie goers to expose themselves to something other than a big budget studio movie. And not because it can be assumed that the story will be better or more original. But rather, to be reminded of the origin of cinematic story telling. Story telling that comes in all shapes, sizes, and costs.
Safety Not Guaranteed comes to its party with a bag full of charm and a cooler full of freshness. Bored intern Darius (Aubrey Plaza) embarks on a work trip/vacation with her internship boss, Jess (Jake Johnson) and fellow intern Arnau (Karan Soni). The misfit trio head down from the offices of Seattle Magazine to track down a beach town crazy who has posted a classified ad for a fellow time traveler. So what begins as journalistic curiosity ends up being Plaza’s own journey into trust, life, and that line we all draw between sanity land and crazy town.
Plaza is immediately likable in that indie real girl sort of way. She’s present and subtle, allowing the story to slow gear up. Her partner in crime for most of the film is Kenneth (Mark Duplass), the classified ad poster who ends up approving her participation in his time traveler venture. Mark and his brother, Jay, both executive produced the movie and are responsible for 2010’s Cyrus. Mark is playful and lovable here as cooky and endearing Kenneth. A standout at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, it’s easy to see how alive a story can feel if acted with the same tone.
Joining Plaza on her adventure is Jake Johnson. Now recognizable as one of the three male roommates on Fox’s new hit show, New Girl, Johnson grounds the story in some realm of reality and older guy wisdom. His character’s own grappling with his age and misguided life help to balance the quirky bizarreness of Duplass’ search to go back in time. Johnson also manages to steal some scenes with Soni’s Arnau, who must learn to embrace is youth and opportunities.
Ultimately, the film is uplifting, tender and fun. Although it could have not revealed so much in its conclusion, Safety Not Guaranteed embraces its anthem and gives an over-saturated movie market, something fresh to fawn over. Let’s just hope enough people go to see it and break their own cycles of monotony.
A little trailer for the heart…
August 2, 2011
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TG1xzuIwvRk]