Once

We only get so many chances in life: chances to fall in love, create great art or if we are lucky the chance to do both at once. This is the theme throughout all of 'Once' the new indie-musical from Irish filmmaker John Carney. Carney is no stranger to music; he was once a member of The Frames, a very popular Irish rock group.'Once' tells the story of a Dublin street busker or street musician named simply 'Guy'. 'Guy' is played by Glen Hansaard the long time front man for the Frames He works at his dad's vacuum shop during the day and buskes at night to make some extra money. One day while on the street singing 'Guy' meets 'Girl'(cute huh?) , played by Markéta Irglová and an interesting relationship develops between the two of them. She is a Chekelozvakian immigrant who cleans houses for a living and is also quite the musician herself. There first musical collaboration is a beautiful scene of the two of them playing one of his songs in a music shop where the sho owner allows her to use the in-store pianos whenever she wants.

There is so much that is good about this film that it is hard to list them all here or to know where to start. It is a musical but not in any traditional sense that you could recognize. The term itself conjures up thoughts of absurd musical numbers occuring in the middle of church, or dinner, or while on the way to school with your friends. In 'Once' all of the music emerges organically from our main characters as they play each other songs they've written or as they practice on their own.

The chemistry between the two leads is also quite palpable, but it never veers off into predictalbe territory. Upon first hearing Guy's song Girl asks him who he wrote them for, knowing full well that emotion such as that is only born out of heartbreak or despair. As it turns out he wrote thom for an ex who now lives in London and he has yet to gather up the courage to go get her back. Girl has an equally complicated story, having moved to Dublin with her little girl and mother so that they could have a better life outside of the Chzek Republic. She is also married, although she claims that she doesn't care for the relationship anymore. When not performing music together the two shares scenes of sometimes great sweetness but at other times incredible awkwardness. It is clear that they like each other but this is too good of a film to go for easy satisfaction and it knows that in life things don't always play out as you would think or as you would wish.

In the end what makes this film so great to watch is the power of the music and how it fits seemlessly into the story. Hansard is more than capable of carrying the film and Irglová is every bit his equal on screen. It should also be noted that this film was made for a piltry $100,000. The idea that a film of this caliber can be made for that kind of money speaks to the passion of the filmmaker and the absolute vision he must have had for this from the very beginning. It was shot on grainy digital and the beginning cinematography is nothing special, but by the time you're 10-15 minutes into the story you forget how low budget it all is as you become wrapped up completely in the story and the stakes of these people's lives.

This is a film about taking chances. Guy could easily have just continued on busking and working at his father's shop and in all honesty he may very well continue to do that, we aren't given an answer at the end. But he does take a chance. In a hilarious scene he and Irglová go to the bank to get a loan to help pay for studio costs. Once the loan officer discovers that they are musicians he cant resist but to play one of his own songs much to the two's chagrin. This helps them get the money they need to take a chance, a chance at not accepting the life you have when you know you could have a better one. Those kinds of chances happen once in a lifetime.


http://www.spout.com/films/299579/default.aspx

Foreign Film Pick: "The Inheritance"

Ulrich Thomsen stars in 'The Inheritance'

It is often said that death brings people, and especially families, closer together. The preceding couldn't be further from the truth for the characters who inhabit Per Fly's The Inheritance, a 2003 film from Denmark. In the tradition of Dogme cinema begun by Lars Von Trier Inheritance examines closely the disintegration of relationships during and after crisis using a minimalist style. In this case it is Christoffer (Ulrich Thomsen) a successful restauranteur and his young, beautiful actress wife Maria (Lisa Werlinder)who are put under the microscope. The two have an idyllic life in Stockholm: maria has been offered a full time contract at the theatre where she regularly performs to sold out crows and Christoffer is doing quite well in the restaurant business. But this apparent utopia does not last long as the couple receive news of the suicide of Christoffer's father.

Upon returning home for the funeral things get even more complicated than expected as we meet the rest of Christoffer's family. His mother, steely in her ability to show barely any grief, has already orchestrated Christoffer's take over of the family business; a steel mill in financial jeopardy. This throws a wrench in all of his plans with his wife Maria who desires to stay in Stockholm where she can enjoy her casual bugoise life. To her having to move to Christoffer's hometown is like a prison sentence. However, without consulting his wife he decides to take over the firm, knowing full well the misery that is ahead of him. She reluctantly follows him, even though she knows what is in store for the both of them.

Things only get worse for Christoffer and Maria. He spends too much time at work and not enough time at home and when he is at home he reveals nothing of himself to his wife. At one point she says to him ‘We have nothing in common anymore’. Sure this is the stuff of soap opera but the two lead actors inject so much humanity into their characters and inhabit them so well that we begin to know them as people, not as characters which makes otherwise somewhat predictable plot points more interesting on the screen than they would be on paper. By the time the film is reaching it’s end we know these two well enough to read the smallest looks on their faces. Take for instance when Christoffer has his new business partners over for dinner and he lets slip a business decision which we know will impact his personal life and we can guess Maria’s reaction before it even happens.

There is a smaller sub-plot about a company merger and insider back-stabbing on the part of Christoffer’s brother-in law Ulrik. The film is very clear about how it feels on the issues of running a business such as this: you need to be cold, hard, and unforgiving. But the film does not condemn the business world, it merely presents its ugly realities. Christoffer has a close adviser named Niels who advocates this kind of determinism only to be the victim of the same systematic necessity in the end of the film. The business will always preserve itself and the individual will always lose, either personally or professionally.

Ulrich Thomsen is great as Christoffer and is able to convey all different sides to a very complex and tortured man. He is capable of being entirely charming one minute and completely menacing the next. Were he an American or even a British actor he would no doubt be a household name. Lisa Werlinder is also quite good as his wife Maria and it is through her eyes that we are able to see how cold Christoffer becomes throughout the course of the film. In one great scene he actually fires his own brother-in law for starting rumours about him and when his sister, after a year of absence from his life, begs him to rehire her husband he does not budge an inch. Take for example an another scene where a former girlfriend tells him of her love for him and says “we could have such a good life together” he replies simply “I have a good life.”

The film, despite all that occurs in the first two-thirds, delves into unexpected territory at end so much so that if this were an American film would be sure to garner disgust and hatred. However it is true to itself concerning the desires and impulses that come from attempting to live the life you feel obligated to live and abandoning the one you've always wanted. Towards the beginning I kept wondering why more wasn't explained about the father's suicide. By the time the film was over and having watched Christoffer and Maria's journey I didn't need any more explanation.

It is amazing that films like this aren’t made more often in America. The Inheritance was the recipient of numerous awards and praise internationally when it debuted in 2003. It was shot in inexpensive digital, as is the rule and current trend in Danish cinema. An American studio could make twenty of these films for each Spider Man 3 and Pirates of The Caribbean it churns out every year. But the American film industry has become so incapable of seeing past opening weekend at the box office that films like this are never made. It doesn’t have explosions, car chases, or swash buckling pirates but it does have interesting characters who in the end never grow boring or predictable.

Other Recommendations in Danish Cinema
After The Wedding (2006)
Brothers (2004)
Open Hearts (2002)
Breaking the Waves (1996)

Superbad Trailer

As if 'Knocked Up' wasn't enough of Seth Rogen this summer we still have Superbad to look forward to this August. Here is the trailer, prepare to laugh:



http://www.spout.com/films/286651/default.aspx

Top 5 Heist Movies

In Honor of the newly released Ocean's Thirteen I have compiled a list of my favorite heist films. Enjoy.

5) Reservoir Dogs.
1992 Directed by Quention Tarantino.
The film that put Tarantino on the map is also one of the best looks behind the mask of film criminals. Behind that mask we find a cold, selfish heart. It is unflinching in it's portrayal of the type of person or person's who make their living knocking off casinos, robbing banks, and holding up liquor stores. However unlike most heist films, none of the members of the crew know each other besides through color coded aliases and even more unusua is that all of the action takes place after the robbery, which goes horribly wrong. Despite all of their differences all of the members are sure of one thing: there is a rat in their midst. Who it is they do not know and eventually their seeds of distrust amongst one another grow to fruition. What we do see of the robbery we see in flashback and even then very little. All throughout the film we too are wondering who the rat is and when we do find out we are rewarded with the best sequence of the film as Tim Roth's undercover officer preps himself to infiltrate this gang of professionals. Filled with great dialogue and possibly the most memorable torture scene in film history this is a heist film that isn't afraid to get its hands dirty and gives us a cynical, brutal finale.

4) Heat.
1995 Directed by Michael Mann.
You cannot think of the modern crime genre without thinking of this classic heist film from Miami vice creator and director of The Last of The Mohicans and The Insider's Michael Mann. The film is memorable for many reasons least of which having Al Pacino and Robert DeNiro on screen together for the first time in film history. The two were famously in the Godfather Part II but never shared a scene. Here they are flip sides of the same coin; Pacino as a world weary police detective chasing DeNiro's master thief. DeNiro runs a crew of highly skilled professional criminals including Val Kilmer and Tom Sizemore. Likewise Pacino also has a crack team of his own whose sole purpose is to put people like DeNiro away. The story, which could easily play out as a simple genre film elevates itself to a kind of modern epic with the action unfolding itself over a dark, visually captivating Los Angeles. As the film moves along it picks up the viewer to move along with it towards its tragic and mournfully sad ending where no one wins and everyone loses. This film shows the ultimate futility of life on either side of the law.

3) Ocean's 11
2001 Directed by Steven Sodebergh
Probably one of the biggest surprises at the box office, Sodeberghs original Oceans movie was a remake of the classic starring Frank Sinatra. It has now surpassed its original in popularity, style, and star power. Danny Ocean, fresh out of prison hopes to make the score of a lifetime by robbing not one but three casinos in Las Vegas. He does this by recruiting a large crew of trained Pro's from his right hand man Rusty Ryan (Brad Pitt) to freshman pick-pocket Matt Damon to explosives expert Basher (Don Cheadle). The film is great fun as it unfolds the general planning of the heist only to deliver the actual job in a much more spectacular and unbelievable fashion. Through a series of cons and slight of hands Ocean's 11 manages to pull of the heist of a lifetime all the while providing plenty of humor and visually pizzaz. The film fits together perfectly and all of the stars balance their performances off of one another with amazing precision.

2) The Sting
1973 Directed George Roy Hill
As far as heist movies go this one deviates a bit from the main path leading us into territory mostly not visited in the genre. There are no strong armed-men with guns or cracking of safes but rather huge confidence scams and wagers placed upon wagers that depend on one another. The whole things is like a house of cards that could come falling down at any minute. If this movie were made today there is no doubt that George Clooney and Brad Pitt would take the place of a stellar Paul Newman and Robert Redford as the leaders in a complicated plan to enact revenge on a powerful banker for the death of one of their mentors. The set up is complicated as more than a few unwelcome special interests begin to rear their heads as Newmand and Redford set up a complex plan to get even involving horse racing. Newman and Redford are great together as the double protagonists and its many memorable scenes and unforgettable theme song make this one a classic.

1) Dog Day Afternoon
1975 Directed by Sidney Lumet
Rarely do heist films deeply explore the reason behind the main characters desire for money. That is what makes this 1975 film so different from any other hiest film ever made. It starts with a bang as Pacino and partner John Cazale storm a bank and hold it hostage. Things escalate as we are thrown into scene that has become familiar in contemporary films but rare at the time. The set up for this film has been copied so many times, think John Q, Mad City, Inside Man, that we forget that at the time what Lumet was doing was quite original. Pacino and Cazale hold out in a standoff that ultimately forces the robbers to reveal their motives to the police and the audience. This is a rarity in film that the desire should be so human and not guided by guilt or indulgence as misguided as the criminals actions may be. Pacino is amazing in a performance that he has unfortunately found himself repeating for the last thirty years. However at the time it was original and true. Cazale is also great and watching him makes you realize that the film world lost him long before it would have liked to.

http://www.spout.com/films/9387/default.aspx

Ocean's Thirteen: Less than eleven but more than twelve.

There is a scene mid-way through the last installment of the Oceans Eleven franchise where our two main characters Danny Ocean and Rusty Ryan lament over the vegas that used to be and how it has changed for the worse. The same could be said for the heist movie which has now become just another mundane genre full of cliche'd robbery methods and meaningless payoffs. Thankfully Ocean's Thirteen has enough charm and humor to make us forget or at least ignore the fact that as a heist movie it doesn't quite work on more than one level.

The story opens with the rest of our beloved gang discovering that their mentor and financier Reuben Tishkoff (Elliott Gould) has landed in the hospital as a result of a business deal gone awry with sleazy casino developer Willy Bank (Al Pacino, terrific). After going through a somewhat humorous list of what they could all do to Bank to enact revenge they decide not to use violence and hit him where it really hurts: by sabotaging his new casino 'The Bank' on it's opening night. These men, of course, would never resort to violence. Sure they have no problem stealing loads of money but hurting another huma being is absolutely out of the question, how then would be able to root for them?

The plot to bring down Bank's casino is an elaborate one. It involves a number of operations that seem ten times as impossible as anything in the first film. They include infiltrating numerous associated industries of the casino industry such as a dice factory in Mexico where the always funny Casey Affleck and Scott Caan do as much to help the Ocean's gang cause as they do to start a workers revolution. The gang also needs to infiltrate the gaming board so that they can manipulate the card machines in order to rig black jack and watch Bernie Mac's Frank Catton show up as a domino dealer keen on selling his special gaming tables. While these scams and cons might seem difficult enough on their own none of it can be done while the casino's special security system is functioning. In order to get it to go offline they need to create a miniature earthquake by doing no less then drilling underneath the casino with a large man driven drill, one that was specifically used to 'dig the chunnel from the French side'.

There is also a smaller sub-plot that entails Saul (Carl Reiner) impersonating a notorious reviewer of casinos. He is given the royal treatment while the real casino reviewer (David Paymer) is subjected to the worst hotel service (including a nasty skin infection) known to man. This ties in to what really matters to Willy Bank: the coveted 'five diamond' rating for a new casino. Bank has one five already that he keeps stored away on the top floor of his monstrosity of a new building and is hell bent on getting a sixth. This creates significant problems for the Ocean's gang when they run out of money and ar forced to go to their former nemesis Terry Benedict for financing. He demands that they also steal Bank's 'five diamond' awards and will not finance the other part of their plan unless they capitulate.

There are numerous other developments in the film in which I could divulge but I don't feel the need to because nothing in this film goes deeper than the surface. The first 'Ocean's' film had all of the charm of this one but it also had just a little bit of depth with the added story of Danny Ocean trying to win back his ex-wife Tess from Terry Benedict. In 'Thirteen' Ocean's Tess and Rusty's Isabelle are mentioned only in passing and it is alluded that things are over in both relationships. This is really just a way for their to be an explanation of their absence from the film. The only thing closely resembling a romantic story is Matt Damon's character's seduction of Ms. Sponder (Ellen Barkin) as Pacino's #2. This was a fun sub plot and had it been given more development earlier in the film would have paid off in a more rewarding fashion. Instead it is just another cherry on top of the sundae.

In the end Ocean's Thirteen is no great achievement; it offers very little that is new in the heist genre, there are happenings which are illogical at best and impossible at worst and much of what happens seems to materialize out of thin air. Heist movies of the old days took pleasure in explaining how the crime would be achieved and we eventually grew to believe in the plan along with the criminals. This film simply shows us the results and asks that we take the leap. However, despite all the things this film gets wrong as heist movie it moves along wonderfully as a piece of pop art. Steven Sodebergh is a director who I have long admired but his latest attempts and experiments have mostly failed. Bubble was an interesting film but didn't quite reach the catharsis necessary to make it relevant and last year's the Good German was an earnest experiment that ultimately failed in achieving all that it wanted to be. But with Ocean's Thirteen Sodebergh hits the mark, at least on the surface. We don't need emotional depth or revelatory dialogue or even believable set pieces here, it was made merely to entertain us and it does that. It's style is beautiful, and the characters banter is great to listen to now that it lacks some of the arrogance of the 2nd film. I suppose it is essential to suspend disbelief for a film like this, because once you do it is worth the ride.

http://www.spout.com/films/278177/default.aspx

Why Blog?

I have to admit something before I begin my first blog post: I have been resisting starting my own blog for several years now. Not because I like to go against the tide or anything but mostly because I saw them as generally self-centered depots for the less hip in society to claim something as their own and brag about themselves in the process. As it turns out, however, I was mistaken in this assumption and have since become addicted to blogs, podcasts, and any other medium of opinion that the internet has made available to our generation. The more voices that are heard on any one subject the more likely it is that there will be a discussion on said subject. Granted this means that we are likely to have a large number of blogs and other media of no value whatsoever, it can't be helped it's simply the rule of averages.

Sorry I seemed to have rambled on there for a moment. This blog isn't about other blogs or the internet but films: good films, bad films, classic films, foreign films, films so bad they are good and any other kind of film you can think of. Most of what I learned about watching films came from reading criticisms and the more criticisms I read the better I understood the art of film and how it enriches our society. My hope is two-fold: 1)That people will read this blog and 2)that when people read they will actually learn something or at least be entertained by my thoughts and opinions.
I will be reviewing at least one new film per week but I will also be discussing older films worth revisiting on an almost daily basis. So stay tuned for what is to come next, this should be interesting...