American Sniper (2014) - Clint Eastwood

We had dinner at Ruby Tuesday before catching the 7:00 PM showing of American Sniper.  We all make poor choices from time to time.  Dinner was bland, uninspiring, and predictable.  To put it simply, American Sniper is the Ruby Tuesday of cinema: lacking in subtlety, made for the masses, and just unremarkable.  Please let me clarify that the film and its execution were unremarkable, not the true story itself.

This film is extremely cliched and predictable.  When a character starts talking about his plans for a blissful future with the woman he loves, you know that guy's a goner.  When lovers embrace lovingly and tell each other how proud they are of each other before parting ways with promises of "I'll be back soon...can't wait to see you later," you know that somebody is going to die within the next 5 minutes.  Every scene is a pensive setup for a later defining scene.  American Sniper is extremely formulaic in its quest for poetry.  I've read reviews that praise the film for not "wasting any moments" and I agree: there's no nuance nor subtlety in any of the scenes.  However, the lack of subtlety makes the film feel sterile like an over-simplified caricature of life.  It completely zaps the film of any human emotion and ultimately, is the most disappointing thing about the film.

The trailer opens with an Iraqi child urged by his mother to run towards an American envoy with a grenade.  With the child right in his crosshair, our protagonist faces the moral dilemma of shooting a child who probably doesn't understand the conflict nor consequences that his mother has led him into.  This scene suggests that American Sniper is about the moral conflict and psychological toll of being the most lethal sniper in American history but spoiler alert: this the film's opening scene and only bout with moral conflict.  Take out this moral crisis and what you're left with is over 2 hours of exactly what you think the movie is about.  It's a shoot-em-up.  It's Call of Duty with dialogue.  Unlike its predecessors The Hurt Locker or Zero Dark Thirty, American Sniper boils down and simplifies America's longest military engagement.  We are the good guys and they are the "evil savages."  The film doesn't affirm nor challenge any of your existing moral nor political beliefs about America's involvement in the Middle East.  In fact, it doesn't ask any questions at all which for me, is where the film disappoints.  

I've never read Chris Kyle's autobiography (which the film was based off) but it bothered me that the film never portrayed the Iraqi people as human beings.  Did our protagonist not see these people as humans?  They were almost always faceless "savages" regardless of age, gender or even civilian status.   Bradley Cooper's Chris Kyle seemed so detached and devoid of emotion that he came off as almost robotic for much of the film.  There has to be a more significant mental repercussion of witnessing the murders of innocent people than what was portrayed as mild PTSD that cured itself with time.  There has to be a greater psychological consequence after personally killing 160+ people than what was portrayed.  He had to have some sort of moral crisis raging inside, right?  Based on the trailer, I thought that the film would be a discussion of this moral conflict or would at least touch on this Remarque-ian theme.  I was disappointed that the film largely ignored this relatable and humanizing conflict to glorify the quantity of Chris Kyle's kills.  

Major Pictures of 2014 (sort of)

This is a list of every major movie that I watched in theaters this year and it is really short.  I don't watch a lot of movies in theaters mainly because it's expensive and there are only a handful of trailers that make me want to see a film.  Nothing is worse than paying $30 for a ticket, drink, and a medium popcorn only to find yourself falling asleep or hating a movie after 25 minutes.  True story that happened to us during Tree of Life and Shame.  Onto the list!

Recommendations from 2014 Movies 

Boyhood directed by Richard Linklater

By far, my favorite film of 2014. Filmed with the same cast over 12 years, Boyhood is an intimate look at growing up as told through the eyes of  six year old Mason. Obviously, the film attracted a lot of attention for its graduated taping methodology but it isn't a gimmick.  In 12 years, you don't just see the characters age, but you observe the actors growing up and witness how experience wises and shapes their character.  This film is also the only thing that has ever made me want to go to Texas.

The Grand Budapest Hotel directed by Wes Anderson

When I watched Moonrise Kingdom a few years ago, I was sure that Wes Anderson's very next film would be a step down.  Oh how wrong I was.  Grand Budapest Hotel may just be his best film yet.  This is the Andersonian interpretation of a World War II film.  The quirks of a quintessential Anderson film are all there but have somehow gotten even quirkier and funnier. 

Average & MEH. films of 2014

Interstellar directed by Christopher Nolan

I didn't not like this movie, I just don't really have a desire to see it again.  The story was OK but this whole thing about "love conquering every dimension" felt like an afterthought and it made the film unnecessarily cheesy.  The pacing was awkward...too fast in the beginning, dragged on in the middle, kind of an abrupt end.  The film could have been better-edited.  I definitely think this was one of Nolan's weaker films but I spent the entire weekend reading about wormholes so it piqued some kind of interest.

Gone Girl directed by David Fincher

"The book was better" is such a cliche but in this case, it's totally true.  The film was shot almost scene for scene like the book yet the result on film was just sterile.  Part of what made the book engrossing and sexy was the change in Nick and Amy's voice from chapter to chapter.  As you turned the page, you were never quite sure of either characters' motive and you couldn't help but wonder if Nick really did kill Amy.  Fincher is one of my favorite directors but this was definitely his most disappointing film.

Begin Again directed by John Carney

This movie got way too cheesy before it realized that it  had morphed into a cliche.  I can't tell if this was meant to be consumed by the masses or an independent film to be adored by artsy darlings.  In fact, the physical act of independently recording a musical album may be the only thing remotely artsy about this film.  The crazy part is that the album recorded is supposed to be "a collection of love songs to New York City" and yet it about as New York as the latest Taylor Swift album...meaning not at all.  

The Royal Tenenbaums (2001) - Wes Anderson

The Royal Tenenbaums is one of those films that everybody makes references to and even if you've never seen it, you've somehow become at least aware of, if not familiar, with the film's icons.  The first time I "came across" a Wes Anderson character, it was my friend Cate dressed up as Margot Tenenbaum for Halloween.  Like most 19 year olds, I pretended to know exactly whom the reference was to, but deep down I legitimately thought she was referencing a character from The Birdcage...yes, that Robin Williams movie.  A pretty embarrassing mix up but when I finally watched The Royal Tenenbaums, it was like a light bulb went off in the recesses of my mind.  You know when Zach Braff's character in Garden State asks Natalie Portman's character what she's listening to and she says, "The Shins, they'll change your life"?  That's how I felt about The Royal Tenenbaums the first time I saw it...it was my New Slang. (Zero apologies for the lame referential joke there)

The film's premise is simple but the story is a poignant look at the ever-changing bonds between a family.  The Tenenbaums were once a great family in a New York City-esque metropolis until Royal's many indiscretions led to divorce.  20 years after the divorce, we are introduced to the now grown-up Tenenbaum children, all of whom are depressed in their own ways.  In his interviews with Matt Zoller Seitz, Anderson noted that one of the film's major themes is divorce and its on-going emotional consequences.  As he points out, in the wake of divorce, an entire family mourns but a divorce is no accident...divorces are deliberate and the expected outcome of unresolved issues.

From the film's onset, you get the idea that the Tenenbaum children's problems stem from their father Royal, who truthfully, is a terrible father and kind of a crappy person.  He intentionally shot Chas with a BB gun when Chas was a child, made a habit of always reminding Margot that she was adopted, and took Richie to dog fights.  After the divorce, Royal moved into a hotel suite and cut contact with his family for 20 years.  When the hotel eventually kicks him out because he's broke, he comes back to his already-fragile family and claims that he is dying.  He isn't...he's just broke and needs money.  When the truth comes out, Royal's deception sends the family spiraling into yet another emotional crisis.

The Royal Tenenbaums is noted for its plethora of iconic characters but perhaps its greatest legacy is the storybook-esque and timeless world that the Tenenbaums live in.  Anderson creates a world that feels like a cross between 1960 America and early 20th century Europe with a touch of Harry Potter.  It is a world of modern conveniences but people still travel by steamboat with their trunks.  The world is a whimsical one where Richie has a pet hawk, Chas invented "dalmatian mice", and Richie's friend Eli Cash is a renowned author of very wordy Western novels that truthfully don't make much sense.  In addition to Anderson's establishment of his Andersonian world, The Royal Tenenbaums is visually striking to where even a casual viewer can observe that it looks different from other films that they have seen.  I am not a filmmaker so I won't pretend to know the technical mechanisms of film making, but I can recognize signature shots because well, they're right in front of me.  I recognize that Truffaut has his rolling wide angle shots and Wes Anderson has what I call over head "still-life" interjecting shots captioned in Futura Bold font.  These are quintessential characteristics of Anderson's distinctive style that he continues to refine in later films.  Anderson's playful but poignant storytelling style allows him to depict and show difficult issues that would otherwise be gruesome, like suicide, in an eerily beautiful way.

The Wes Anderson Collection

Who doesn't love a Wes Anderson film?  OK maybe that's a rhetorical question since I brought it up at work and only one person knew who/what I was talking about.  Come on, Nashville.  Nevertheless, amongst our circle of friends, Wes Anderson is regarded as the director of our generation.  His films are highly stylized (both visually and thematically) yet Anderson's characters are faced with pure emotions and turmoil that any audience can find relatable.  In addition, his films are short and sweet; he's been known to tell friends, "shoot me if I ever make a film over 100 minutes."  Our love of Wes Anderson is no secret and we were both really excited when Justin's father gave us The Wes Anderson Collection last weekend.

The book is a behind-the-scenes look at all of Anderson's films as well as a lot of really great pictures of his many influences.  The book is "narrated" by an interview between Matt Zoller Seitz and Anderson and is actually really great.  I tend to get bored reading interview transcripts but Seitz's informed questioning leads to a very layered discussion of Anderson's films.  Justin and I have seen every Wes Anderson film but after flipping through this book, we were both eager to rewatch the films with new insight.  I was really excited to find out that Anderson's distinctive visual style is heavily influenced by classical fine art.  Justin was excited about the filmaking process and pondered how the films would feel if Anderson could "correct" the way his films were shot.  It's decided then; as we make our way through the Criterion Collection, we will also rewatch every Wes Anderson film and I will review every film...somehow (maybe).

Presentation of The Lord by Hans Holbein the Elder was a visual influence for Rushmore

Il Posto (1961) - Ermanno Olmi

I'm a total history buff and before I sold my soul to the devil and became an accountant, I majored in history with a dream of becoming the female David McCullough.  I enjoyed Il Posto far more than I thought I would because of its pragmatic observation of corporate culture and the so-called "economic miracle" in Italy between the end of World War II and the late 1960s.

First, some background.  After years of economic and political unrest, countries like Italy were susceptible of falling under the rising tide of communism in postwar Europe. In an effort to contain communism abroad, the Truman Administration extended economic aid to Europe through The Marshall Plan with the goal of stabilizing these postwar economies and fending off Soviet influence.  Between 1946 and the mid 1960s, Italy received more than $1.5 billion of Marshall Plan money as well as contracts to produce munitions for the US Army in the Korean War...another front of America's containment policy in the Cold War.  This injection of money and manufacturing helped Italy's GDP grow by more than 4% annually in the 2 decades after World War II.  This economic turnaround was nothing short of a miracle.  Italy's economy rebounded to be stronger than it had been prewar and turned the country from a rural society of peasants to a manufacturing and industrial powerhouse that was third only to Germany and the United Kingdom.  It is within this economic miracle that Olmi's work takes place.

 The film's protagonist is Domenico, a young boy from the outskirts of Milan who goes into the city to interview for a job that once he gets, will likely be his career for life.  The interview consists of a series of seemingly random aptitude, physical, and psychological tests.  During the interview, he meets Antonietta, a young girl from San Siro who like Domenico, has forgone high school to start work in this bustling economy.  After Domenico gets a mail room job with the company, he quickly realizes the monotony of corporate life and for most of the film, Antonietta represents a beacon of light in the otherwise mundane workplace.

The pair's meeting seems so serendipitous and Domenico is visibly excited at the prospect of working with his crush.  This fantasy is quickly dashed when he ends up in the mail room and she gets assigned to be a typist in a completely separate building.  Nevertheless, Domenico goes into work every day with the hopes of running into her but this proves impossible because they have different lunch hours and his day ends 15 minutes after hers.  Domenico's crush is both endearing and heartbreaking but it's something that is so relatable.  Antonietta never tries to come see him but he still clings onto the hope that they will meet again.  With his first paycheck, Domenico buys himself a jacket that she mentioned she liked and waits for her in the rain.  When he finally sees her, she is on her way to the fair with a group of colleagues and arm in arm with another young man while Domenico watches from a distance, his new jacket soaked from the rain.

Il Posto is the film equivalent of an album by The National in that it explores the disillusionment and lonely reality of corporate culture.  Olmi bisects Domenico's story with glimpses into the mundane and heartbreaking lives of his coworkers  in a way that feels prophetic.  You can't help but wonder whether these people went through the same interview process as our hero and that their reality is Domenico's future.  Olmi's work is an unromantic examination of this so-called economic miracle through the lens of a character who is essentially a child forced into a very adult world.  Even as the soul crushing reality of his work settles in, Domenico holds into the belief that there will be a happy ending to this job...or at least he wants to believe in a happy ending.  In his mind, he's going to earn some money and take the girl out for coffee which they will both enjoy.  As it turns out, he takes her out for coffee with pocket money from his mother and they both find that they aren't particularly fond of coffee.

 Economic growth brings about prosperity which in theory makes people happier. However, as economic stability steadily transforms Milan into a bustling metropolis filled with consumerism and "prosperity", it's hard to argue that these material things bring people actual happiness.  Domenico and Antonietta's families constantly urge them to do well in the interview because once they got the job, they would have it for life.  In theory, our own personal economic stability is supposed to put us at ease but the reality of having one job for life is thoroughly depressing.  It's heartbreaking to watch a child recognize that in order to achieve his own personal economic stability, he has to accept that there are dreams which will never be realized.

Olmi's work is a commentary on the choices and sacrifices we all make as adults in the face of "real life" obligations.  At one point or another, we all enter "the real world" and no matter how cynical, we do so with exuberance and far-reaching dreams.  As the reality of financial constraints and obligations settle in, most of us are forced to choose: do you want to live comfortably or do you want to chase this unlikely dream?  Most of us come to the realization that life at the bottom of the economic ladder sucks and so we settle on doing something that we enjoy but it isn't necessarily fulfilling.  So there's the question: does your personal financial stability outweigh the nagging voice in the back of your head that says you are unfulfilled and something is missing in your life?

Loves of a Blonde (1965) - Miloš Forman

Zruc is a small factory town in Czechoslovakia's dying manufacturing industry where the women factory workers outnumber the men by sixteen to one.  In such a competitive market, women find themselves desperately vying for any man's attention but the town beauty, Andula, has no shortage of men trying to woo her.  The women are excited when they hear news that the Czech Army will station soldiers in Zruc but that excitement quickly dissipates when they realize that the army sent reservists to town instead of the strapping young men they'd envisioned.

Loves of a Blonde is a simple story about a small town girl who falls for a guy from the big city.  The story is simple and one that happens all the time, but the film is shot like a slapstick comedy with satirical observations of human behavior throughout.  Within her predominantly female town, Andula is the beautiful girl that every man wants and while she pretends to be ignorant of her appeal to men, she's never above bragging about her latest love interest.  When she and her friends notice the middle-aged soldiers looking their way, the girls act bored and feign disinterest. "Oh God, I hope they don't send drinks over," they say, but then are disappointed when it appears that the men sent the table of women next to theirs a bottle of wine.  (This turns out to be a mistake and leads to one of the most cringe-worthy and yet, hilarious, sequences of the film.)

It isn't appropriate to call Andula "ungrateful" for her ultra-effective pheromones, but she definitely carries herself with a sense of entitlement...and how could she not?  Within her small town, she is the girl who has guys giving her diamond rings while the other girls haven't even seen a diamond in the flesh.  Days after she and Milda sleep together, she is confronted by this particular young man outside the factory and tells him to leave her alone but that she's keeping the ring because it was a gift.  Simply put, Andula is hot shit in this small town but when she meets Milda, she quickly learns that her appeal is not universal nor does it extend beyond the borders of Zruc.  Rather, within the context of a large city and options, she is in fact just an average pretty girl from a small town who gets played by a smooth talking metropolitan musician.

Forman's narrative is thoughtful and endearing while his direction proved to be stylistically influential to Czech New Wave cinema.  Forman experimented with shooting scenes where half of the characters were professional actors while the others' reactions were semi-improvisational.  This stylistic choice gives the film a distinct feeling of realness and the characters' interaction a sense of candidness.  When a table of young women notice that a table of middle aged men checking them out, both tables debate pretending not to notice the other.  Andula's first encounter with Milda, a jazz pianist from Prague, is as awkward as first meetings usually are and their reunion in Prague with his parents is even more cringe-worthy.  Forman's work was a visually striking piece of cinema with no scene more memorable than the post-coital scene between Milda and Andula.  Shot entirely from above, the scene is risque even by today's standard but the moment's intimacy makes the scene sexy, not the physical depiction of sex.

"...and you, you look like a guitar too, but one painted by Picasso."

L'Avventura (1960) - Michelangelo Antonioni

L'Avventura is a film with a reputation.  Upon its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in 1960, it was booed by the audience but was selected for the Jury Prize after its second showing.  (Apparently the Jury Prize is the third most prestigious prize at Cannes.)  That sort of "only critics understand this" credibility makes it the quintessential pretentious-high brow-foreign film that everybody thinks you should see.  I don't mean to sound like a film snob, but really, everyone should see this film.

Antonioni’s characters live in a world of extreme wealth which allows them the luxury of ultimate leisure because inherently, leisure is what separates the rich.  Without the burdens of a job or financial obligations, the film’s central figures live an MTV lifestyle complete with self-created problems.  With a name like L'Avventura, it is only fitting that the story is a melodramatic tale about incredibly shallow people all searching for their own adventure.

Anna is the spoiled daughter of an Italian diplomat who disapproves of her relationship with Sandro, a wealthy playboy.  Despite her obvious beauty and privileged lifestyle, Anna is shown as a character who is constantly looking for something or wanting to prove something.  In the film's opening scene, Anna’s father simply tells her “that boy will never marry you”, referring to Sandro. Immediately after their conversation, Anna reunites with Sandro and seduces him while her best friend Claudia waits in the street.  Later, Anna is distraught and frightened when she sees a shark while swimming.  “I could have died!” she exclaims.  She later confesses to Claudia that she made up the shark.  The shark scare served as the fix for an argument between her and Sandro with him coming to her rescue in the ocean.  It’s obvious that Anna is a perpetual liar who spins tales for attention-so much so that when she goes missing, Sandro blankly states that she is probably hiding from the group to get attention.  As the group searches for Anna, I asked Justin what he thinks happened to her. “I don’t think she died but if she did, she probably died trying to hide from them for attention.”  Sounds about right.

Early in the film, Anna’s best friend Claudia doesn’t seem too impressed with Sandro but a few stolen
glances during the search for her friend and she’s putty in his hands.  Sandro makes his intentions clear about 18 hours after Anna’s disappearance.  As Claudia finds herself increasingly attracted to Sandro, she breaks down out of guilt and it appears that she is suffering a moral dilemma.  This lasts approximately 6 minutes.  Antonioni paints Claudia as a young woman who desperately wants to have this sordid love affair that in her mind, is an adventure that will make her oh so interesting and mysterious.  You know that girl who would have an affair with a married man just to have a story to tell?  Claudia is that girl.  After her initial hesitations, she dives head first into a relationship that she can’t possibly believe will last and it is one that turns her into an insecure young woman who is desperate for Sandro’s love.  She constantly asks Sandro for affirmation that he loves her and it’s plain to see that deep down, she has reservations about Sandro’s sudden discovery of his feelings for her.

Sandro is Anna’s wealthy playboy lover and the archetype of an Italian lothario.  He thinks that he is a passionate man but really, he’s a guy that wants to sleep with all the beautiful women.  Within about a week of meeting Claudia and a few days after his girlfriend’s disappearance, Sandro tells Claudia that he loves her and casually suggests that the two get married.  This is outrageous.  Anna wanted nothing more than for Sandro to marry her but even as he brushed her off, it seemed unlikely that she would ever leave him.  In the scene before her disappearance, Anna cryptically tells Sandro that if he doesn’t want to marry her, then she wants to be alone but he quickly dismisses her implying that he doesn’t actually believe her.  Only when Claudia resists his advances  and questions his love, Sandro abruptly suggests marriage.  He doesn’t ask her to marry him, he simply suggests it and then quickly brushes the idea aside when she points out how crazy it is.

If one thing is clear in this film, it's that none of these characters are in love.  In one of the most memorable scenes, Claudia asks Sandro to tell her he loves her. "I love you," he says with a small smile. "Tell me you don't love me," she tests him.  "I don't love you." Sandro says simply before leaving the bedroom.  He quickly comes back. "That was a lie, I love you."  It seems sweet but Sandro's actions after the scene tell a different story.  The trio are completely devoid of true emotion so it seems ironic that Antionioni's characters find themselves in the most dramatic circumstances and saying the most heartfelt things that can't possibly be true.  To them, love is the ultimate adventure but they are indiscriminate of the “adventure” they choose.  Simply put, they are all unhappily “in love” because they are scared to be alone.

L'Avventura is a remarkable film in that it is the predecessor to the modern soap opera.  Its themes are too familiar in today's culture as the characters feel like they would be right at home on Gossip Girl.  In one way or another, every character is going through their own existential crisis but they never allow themselves to fully explore the emptiness they all feel.  Instead, Anna and her peers fill their fears with disingenuous relationships that they choose to believe is true love.  Nevertheless, Antonioni's work is not merely a scathing commentary of the vapid  and superficial upper class, but an outstanding examination of the fear we all have of being alone and its consequences.