The Social Network

I admit it - I'm on Facebook. I started to keep in touch with my kids and don't consider myself a devotee; although I do check in daily and post occasionally and have... a few.... friends. Got back in touch with a few folks from high school, still keep up with the kids and have actually made some real live friends, as in the kind you genuinely care about, all on Facebook. So I was naturally curious to see the story behind the phenomenon. As stories go - The Social Network is entertaining; even fascinating from the perspective of how fast technology moves in our modern age. But as movies go, I have to say this is a one trick pony at best.

Not that Jesse Eisenberg doesn't work his butt off in a stilted, humorless genius kind of way. Mark Zuckerberg himself called the performance "interesting" in a stilted, humorless kind of way on SNL. Not that Justin Timberlake doesn't make you just hate on Sean Parker or that Andrew Garfield doesn't make you all squishy sad for poor undervalued Eduardo Saverin. The truth is that none of these people have anything that might be called a personality. Maybe that's true in real life, but it's certainly true in this movie. So aside from the events and their consequences, that Zuckerberg made an obscene amount of money in what may or may not have been a morally repugnant way, there isn't much in the way of movie. Which makes it kinda like Facebook.

I will go on the record as a lone wolf on this one; everyone else on the planet seems to think this film is Oscar worthy, it's won like a gazillion awards including Best Picture at the Globes, yadda, yadda, yadda. If you don't know the story, it's worth a viewing just to see what all the fuss is about. But I'm pretty sure you know the story, and the producers of this film are so sure about that that they don't even bother with a synopsis on the website. If you're looking for something about, I don't know, people with messy things like emotions, relationships or a conscience - look elsewhere.

Boy A

Been awhile since I've reviewed, mostly because I haven't seen much worth reviewing, but this little gem deserves your attention. Released in 2008, this brilliant film came to me from the blue... can't remember why I put it in queue, and when I got it I had no idea what it was about. Maybe that was the perfect way to approach the film, so I'll attempt to tease you without letting on too much.

The story opens with Jack (Andrew Garfield) choosing the name Jack. He and Terry (Peter Mullan) are constructing a life for Jack, and at this point we only know that Jack is twentysomething, incredibly innocent, and that Terry (social worker? parole officer?) is really adamant that they must memorize Jack's history and it must be perfect. Set up with a job and a room to live, Jack seems poorly up to the task; he seems so childlike - and flashbacks of his childhood are not happy. As we watch him come of age, finding friends and meeting a girl, we get the feeling something horrible is in his past... and that he won't escape it.

Andrew Garfield has a face that is as transparent as glass - every nuance of emotion is so raw there - that his Jack is heartbreaking. He is mesmerizing even in this rock solid cast. But the story stuck with me for days. This is the kind of film that leaves you full of questions about the morality of modern society and the hypocrisy of the standards by which we judge others. Dare you to watch this and not be changed by it. Dare you. If you want the whole story, see the website here.

My Life Without Me

Oooops, I did it again; finding a little movie that could. This time with a Spanish writer/director (Isabel Coixet,) an American story and a Vancouver, BC, setting. How international can you get without subtitles? The inspiration for this film comes from a short story by Nanci Kincaid, Pretending the Bed is a Raft. And like all my favorite little films My Life Without Me makes me ask myself, "What would I do?"

Ann (a subtle Sarah Polley) is a young mother of two, struggling to make ends meet with a sweet but rarely employed husband (Scott Speedman,) a deeply disappointed mother (Deborah Harry) and little time for introspection. But when a fainting spell sends her to the hospital, her whole perspective changes as she learns that she has only weeks to live. Ann makes the novel decision to tell no one of her diagnosis, but rather to live each day of her life to the fullest. Her decision to go it alone frees her to take every opportunity, including a handsome stranger (Mark Ruffalo,) as a lease on life.

What would you do? This quiet little movie might hang with you for days, as Coixet tells the story with a deft hand - and Polley shines. In the end, this is hardly a tragedy but rather, a parable. See the nicely turned website here.

I've Loved You So Long

Foreign films leave American audiences cold at least in part to their failure to be BIG. They are often quiet little stories about astonishingly unglamorous people, doing ordinary things... like living. This is, of course, the very reason that I enjoy them. I adore a little movie about some regular folks getting by; especially if it gives me a sort of illicit peek into the way someone else manages to do that. If I have to read subtitles to do that, well, so be it.

I've Loved You So Long is a quiet little movie about a quiet woman quietly bearing a terrible secret and a whole lot of pain. It opens as Juliette (Kristin Scott Thomas) returns to the land of the living after 15 years in prison. She is met by her much younger sister Lea (Elysa Zylberstein)who generously opens her home even though the two women are virtually strangers. Juliette is a sphinx who slowly warms to the new people in her life - her little nieces, her guarded brother-in-law, his silent father. The everyday challenges of life are made harder by the question of her crime - finding a job, dealing with social workers and parole officers - but the harder call is how to rebuild the relationship with her sister.

Kristin Scott Thomas is a fabulous actress in any language. Her eyes say so much despite Juliette's lack of dialogue; the cracks in her armor showing on that expressive face. I'll let it slip that this movie lacks the traditional "it will get worse" storyline and lets Juliette move back into life without any spectacular crisis. But that's what makes it moving. Quietly so. See the website here.

War/Dance

Uganda is one of those countries in Africa that has been at war longer than most of it's residents have been alive. So this might have been just another documentary about Africa... the violence, the poverty, the inhumanity that just seems to ravage that continent like an airborne virus out of control. But War/Dance is a different documentary about Africa, and perhaps that is why it won so many awards including a nomination for an Oscar. War/Dance is a documentary about hope.

War/Dance tells the story of three Ugandan children and their remarkable journey from the Patongo refugee camp to the National Music Competition - where 20,000 schools compete to be the best of the best in music and dance. We meet Rose, Dominic and Nancy - all teenagers who have never known a life without war - all with a tragic story to tell of lost childhood and violence - and all with a passion for making music. As the kids prepare for the music festival, without instruments, without uniforms and costumes, the real underdogs going into the competition, their individual stories unfold. These stories may break your heart, but the kids will bring new meaning to the term "survivor."

Directors Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine made a documentary of amazing beauty; the cinematography and editing give a dreamy quality to the film that is hard to resist. The music is breathtaking. But the kids... well, what is there to say. I cried. But it will leave you in awe of the human spirit. See the excellent website here.

Beyond the Sea

Okay, okay, okay - I'll be right upfront and admit that I adore Kevin Spacey. There's not anything he can't do - from scary, evil villain (think Seven) to ridiculous, deadpan comedy (The Ref.) He's proven his ever so serious acting skills over and over (American Beauty, The Usual Suspects etc. etc. etc.) You're getting the adoration, here? I love him in a 'wanna take him home and keep him' sort of way. But everyone has his limits, right? And a musical? How many decent musicals have been made since... I dunno... 1956?

I'm here to tell you that - to date - Kevin hasn't found any limits. Not only can he sing, and dance(!) but this little musical is charming. Simply charming. Beyond the Sea is, of course, the Bobby Darrin story - which in and of itself is so Hollywood a tale as to out Hollywood Hollywood. Poor boy, raised by his Mama, nearly dies of rheumatic fever, not supposed to live very long - goes on to fame, fortune and Sandra Dee. Does it get any sweeter? Bobby defined the lounge singer better than any of the Rat Pack - in point of fact, Sammy Davis Jr. once opined that he would never be willing to follow Bobby Darin. And to give it the proper Hollywood ending, he did indeed die relatively young.

Spacey is delightful, and manages to look much younger than he should. Add an amazing cast who more than carry their own - Kate Bosworth as Sandra, John Goodman, Bob Hoskins!!! Holy cow! We have a winner! Pop some popcorn and be entertained.
See the lousy (can't have everything,) website here.

The Air I Breathe

Here I go again. It's good that no one will sue me for having eclectic taste; perhaps I'm just looking for something that the typical film 'critic' isn't... because usually the films that make my socks go up and down are thought provoking. That's the big criteria. Does it get me thinking... does it linger in the back room of my mind for days... do I find myself returning to a scene... and most importantly, does it make me glimpse yet another facet of the ever fascinating human condition? The Air I Breathe did just those things... so I'm unmoved that virtually every paid critic hated it. I found it thought provoking.

Four main characters, representing the four emotional cornerstones of human existence, Happiness, Pleasure, Sorrow and Love, are linked together by luck? destiny? and a really evil crime boss who goes by the name of Fingers (Andy Garcia.) The characters have no names - a fact that only registered with me after it was over - they are archetypes. Happiness (Forest Whitaker) risks everything in an effort to simply have something extraordinary happen. Life is a burden to Pleasure (Brendan Fraser) until his gift of precognition desserts him. Sorrow (Sarah Michelle Gellar) is a sad victim of circumstance who discovers the strength to finally live when Love (Kevin Bacon) offers her the chance to save a life. Their stories are woven together (think Babel or Crash,) and presented in vignettes that are chronologically uneven, but you'll get the point. Two will make it. Two won't.

You'll figure out how an unknown director got this cast in a minute - this is an actors film and they all do a fine job. Andy Garcia is chilling, Whitaker and Gellar take fear and pain to new levels and Fraser stays complicated. It's a violent story well done without going over the top, and I personally enjoyed the fact that the observer is asked to read between the obvious lines. Is the outcome predictable? Perhaps. Was it thought provoking? Definitely. See the (not so great) website here.