Resolution Probability

I'm usually cautious about broadcasting any New Years resolutions that I may or may not have declared to myself; running around barking about how you've quit having one night stands (or whatever, that isn't mine, trust me) for the new year leads you to the inevitable quicker. Or so I've witnessed. However, as this particular resolution I've made (namely, to keep better records of the films I watch throughout the year) is one that comes about every year with little success, I was wondering if any of you had any special way of doing so. Perhaps online somewhere? I've already started an Excel sheet to track the three films I've already watched in '10, but it may be useful to have this list on the Internet somewhere. Maybe. The thought of avoiding all '00 films I've already seen crossed my mind, as a revisit of Rachel Getting Married yesterday made me regret its low-ish placement on my Decade List. But that sort of resolution doesn't seem likely to happen. We'll see if this project produces any success... as I'd love for it to move into other territories, like balancing my checkbook.

The Decade List: Rachel Getting Married (2008)

Rachel Getting Married – dir. Jonathan Demme

[There's going to be quite a few reposts and/or brief write-ups coming soon on The Decade List, as I'm pressed for time. This is what I had to say about it on my best of 2008 list, and my feelings haven't changed, after watching it again.]

Rachel Getting Married falls into the same category I place David Fincher's Zodiac. It's acceptable to dislike them (as a handful of people do), as long as you don't do so for the wrong reasons. If someone drops the phrase, "well, nothing happens," you can cross them off your list of people whose opinions are worthy of respect. The fact that "nothing happens" in both Zodiac and Rachel Getting Married is where their brilliance lies. Both take familiar subjects (a hunt for a serial killer; a dysfunctional family reunion or wedding movie) and display a sublime fascination in the mundane. In easily his finest fiction film to date, Jonathan Demme conducts Jenny Lumet's screenplay like a beautifully enchanting piece of music. It's frequently mystifying, but always grounded. Rachel Getting Married doesn't sacrifice its bedazzlement or its rawness, allowing the hypnotic dancing sequences to feel perfectly in place with its astute depiction of the unbearable guilt between family members.

With: Anne Hathaway, Rosemarie DeWitt, Bill Irwin, Mather Zickel, Debra Winger, Anna Deavere Smith, Tunde Adebimpe, Anisa George
Screenplay: Jenny Lumet
Cinematography: Declan Quinn
Music: Donald Harrison Jr., Zafer Tawil
Country of Origin: USA
US Distributor: Sony Pictures Classics

Premiere: 3 September 2008 (Venice Film Festival)
US Premiere: 3 October 2008

DVD Update, 1 July, Plus Maybe The African Queen After All?

Some DVD release updates, ordered by release date:

- Sin nombre, 2009, d. Cary Fukunaga, Sony, 1 September
- Camille, 2007, d. Gregory Mackenzie, National Entertainment/E1, also on Blu-ray, 15 September, w. Sienna Miller, James Franco, David Carradine
- Easy Virtue, 2008, d. Stephan Elliott, Sony, also on Blu-ray, 15 September, w. Colin Firth, Kristin Scott Thomas, Jessica Biel
- Grace, 2009, d. Paul Solet, Anchor Bay, also on Blu-ray, 15 September, w. Jordan Ladd
- Lymelife, 2008, d. Derick Martini, Screen Media, also on Blu-ray, 22 September, w. Alec Baldwin, Timothy Hutton, Cynthia Nixon
- O' Horten, 2007, d. Bent Hamer, Sony, 22 September
- Nightmare, 2005, d. Dylan Bank, IFC Films, 29 September
- The Skeptic, 2009, d. Tennyson Bardwell, IFC Films, 6 October, w. Tim Daly, Tom Arnold, Zoe Saldana
- American Violet, 2008, d. Tim Disney, Image, also on Blu-ray, 13 October, w. Will Patton, Alfre Woodard, Tim Blake Nelson
- Chinatown, 1974, d. Roman Polanski, Paramount, Centennial Collection, 13 October
- Gnaw, 2008, d. Gregory Mandry, Dark Sky Films, 13 October
- Sorry, Wrong Number, 1948, d. Anatole Litvak, Paramount, Centennial Collection, 13 October, w. Barbara Stanwyck, Burt Lancaster
- The Stepfather, 1987, d. Joseph Ruben, Shout! Factory, 13 October, w. Terry O'Quinn
- The Butcher, 2007, d. Kim Jin-Won, Palisades Tartan, 27 October
- Night of Death! [La nuit de la mort], 1980, d. Raphaël Delpard, Synapse, 27 October, w. Charlotte de Turckheim

Also look for Stop Making Sense on Blu-ray from Palm on 13 October and the 1951 version of A Christmas Carol on Blu-ray on 3 November. And, maybe, The African Queen will really come out on 13 October as part of Paramount's Centennial Collection.

Now put your hands up

Unless another city throws me for a loop, I probably won't be posting any more of the Critics Awards for 2008. But as IndieWire's Peter Knegt said, Toronto's film awards were "a nice change of pace," honoring Wendy and Lucy with both the best picture and best actress (Michelle Williams) awards. Rachel Getting Married won Best Director, Supporting Actress and Screenplay. You can check out the rest of Toronto's selections here, but you'll have to wait until January before they unveil the award for Best Canadian Film.

Independent Spirit Award Nominations

I'm still unsure as to what films are eligible for nominations for the Independent Spirit Awards, but either way, the nominations were made today, with Rachel Getting Married, The Wrestler, Vicky Cristina Barcelona, Milk, Ballast, Wendy and Lucy, Frozen River and The Visitor up for a handful. You can read the full list over at IndieWire, but here are some of the categories:

Best Picture

Ballast - dir. Lance Hammer
Frozen River - dir. Courtney Hunt
Rachel Getting Married - dir. Jonathan Demme
Wendy and Lucy - dir. Kelly Reichardt
The Wrestler - dir. Darren Aronofsky

Best Director

Ramin Bahrani - Chop Shop
Jonathan Demme - Rachel Getting Married
Lance Hammer - Ballast
Courtney Hunt - Frozen River
Tom McCarthy - The Visitor

Best First Feature

Afterschool - dir. Antonio Campos
Medicine for Melancholy - dir. Barry Jenkins
Sleep Dealer - dir. Alex Rivera
Sangre de mi sangre [Padre Nuestro] - dir. Christopher Zalla
Synecdoche, New York - dir. Charlie Kaufman

Best Screenplay

Woody Allen - Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Anna Boden, Ryan Fleck - Sugar
Charlie Kaufman - Synecdoche, New York
Howard A. Rodman - Savage Grace
Christopher Zalla - Sangre de mi sangre

Best First Screenplay

Dustin Lance Black - Milk
Lance Hammer - Ballast
Courtney Hunt - Frozen River
Jonathan Levine - The Wackness
Jenny Lumet - Rachel Getting Married

Best Male Lead

Javier Bardem - Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Richard Jenkins - The Visitor
Sean Penn - Milk
Jeremy Renner - The Hurt Locker
Mickey Rourke - The Wrestler

Best Female Lead

Summer Bishil - Towelhead
Anne Hathaway - Rachel Getting Married
Melissa Leo - Frozen River
Tarra Riggs - Ballast
Michelle Williams - Wendy and Lucy

Best Supporting Male

James Franco - Milk
Anthony Mackie - The Hurt Locker
Charlie McDermott - Frozen River
JimMyron Ross - Ballast
Haaz Sleiman - The Visitor

Best Supporting Female

Penélope Cruz - Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Rosemarie DeWitt - Rachel Getting Married
Rosie Perez - The Take
Misty Upham - Frozen River
Debra Winger - Rachel Getting Married

Best Documentary

The Betrayal - dir. Ellen Kuras, Thavisouk Phrasavath
Encounters at the End of the World - dir. Werner Herzog
Man on Wire - dir. James Marsh
The Order of Myths - dir. Margaret Brown
Up the Yangtze - dir. Yung Chang

Best Foreign Film

The Class [Entre les murs] - dir. Laurent Cantet - France
Gomorrah [Gomorra] - dir. Matteo Garrone - Italy
Hunger - dir. Steve McQueen - UK
Secret of the Grain [La graine et le mulet] - dir. Abdel Kechiche - France
Silent Light [Stellet licht] - dir. Carlos Reygadas - Mexico

You Move Me / Like Music

With the Saint Louis International Film Festival starting in just about ten days, I’ve got a stack of screeners I need to pile through which may keep my writing/blogging to a minimum in the upcoming week or so. However, I thought I’d throw a few unorganized thoughts about three films out there before I glue myself to the television. Firstly, I’ve seen the end of the so-called mumblecore movement/trend in the face of Joe Swanberg and Greta Gerwig’s Nights and Weekends. If the Duplass’ brothers Baghead showed even the faintest signs of progression, Nights and Weekends has solidified the “on the road to nowhere” fate of its contemporaries. It’s probably most disheartening that with the quickness in which Swanberg makes and releases his films, we haven’t even gotten to witness follow-ups from the two most skilled filmmakers of the movement, Andrew Bujalski (Mutual Appreciation) and Aaron Katz (Quiet City). With unfortunate backing from IFC (their website also showcases his webserial, which just proves that his work is even annoying in small doses), the end appears to have arrived. I wish I could see a progression of maturity or craft with each passing, now-indistinguishable Swanberg film I see, but instead, I find just the opposite. With each stroke swinging in the very same direction, my tolerance diminishes at alarming rates.

On the flip-side, Arnaud Desplechin is a director who has taken a turn for the better. Coming from tepid feelings about his English-language Esther Kahn and wildly mixed feelings for Kings & Queen (Rois et reine), he’s refined just about everything in his latest, A Christmas Tale (Un conte de Noël). Kings & Queen certainly brought him to the attention of the film elite, as most people agreed that the film’s faults made for better cinema than most director’s successes. In A Christmas Tale, he retools his more daring decisions into absolute magnificence. The camera addresses, the fades, the lengthy running time… all seem less the product of an ambitious director than a director who truly knows what the fuck he’s doing. I couldn’t help but think of Jules and Jim during the film’s early moments with Desplechin’s joyous pacing and energy, all of which are matched by the amazing Mathieu Amalric and Emmanuelle Devos, both regulars for the director. Melvil Poupaud, one of the few actors in the film who hadn’t worked with Desplechin prior, is also remarkable, emitting the ferocity that Christophe Honoré keeps trying (and failing) to get out of both himself and Louis Garrel.

Though I can’t recommend A Christmas Story any higher, I’ve also found myself rather smitten with Jonathan Demme’s Rachel Getting Married, of which I haven’t gotten the chance to speak properly yet. Though most talk of the film surrounds Anne Hathaway, I almost feel all the Oscar buzz (I hate that term) for her performance as a recovering addict is overshadowing the fact that the film is quite wonderful. Yeah, she’s good, but she’s playing the role that actors wet dream about; as the titular Rachel, Rosemarie DeWitt takes on the bigger challenge as the thankless, “normal” sister and is absolutely radiant. But enough about the actors, Rachel Getting Married, like A Christmas Tale, moves in a way that seems so absent in cinema these days. While orchestral in some ways, A Christmas Tale resembles a brilliant novel, one whose small decisions and characterizations illuminate the delicacies of the tale at hand. On the other side, I couldn’t help but hear PJ Harvey’s voice in the song “Rope Bridge Crossing” while watching Rachel Getting Married (“you move me / like music”). Demme displays, at once, a swarming opus, the first time he’s been able to convey this in his fiction work after Heart of Gold, Stop Making Sense and music videos for New Order, Bruce Springsteen and The Pretenders. Of course, it would then make sense that TV on the Radio’s Tunde Adebimpe would play DeWitt’s fiancée, in addition to small appearances by Fab 5 Freddy and Robyn Hitchcock. It’s been too long since a film has hypnotized me by its rhythm.

Previous 10: 29 October - After the Flood

It's pretty sad news when you only admire one of the past ten 2008 releases, but at least Rachel Getting Married was a keeper. I can't decide, if given the option, whether I'd ask someone to rewrite all the "I'm old" bits of dialogue in the new Indiana Jones movie or to think up a better explanation for that Crystal Skull. Though I quite disliked I've Loved You So Long, I won't be disappointed seeing Kristin Scott Thomas win a number of awards this winter. I might, however, be disappointed to hear a bunch of Charlie Kaufman worshipers call me an idiot for disliking Synecdoche, New York so much... but it's probably worth noting that, for a variety of reasons, it's the first film I've walked out of in a theatre since I saw that horrendous melodrama Second Skin (Segunda piel) with Javier Bardem six years ago (I don't count Hou Hsiao-hsien's Milennium Mambo, which I also ditched before the credits, as it occured during a horrendous date). And, though I'm sure I'm not the first to point this out, Filth and Wisdom has none of the above.

La Crème

Rachel Getting Married - dir. Jonathan Demme - USA - Sony Pictures Classics - with Anne Hathaway, Rosemarie DeWitt, Mather Zickel, Bill Irwin, Debra Winger, Tunde Adebimpe, Anna Deavere Smith, Anisa George

Les Autres

I Dreamt Under the Water [J'ai rêvé sous l'eau] - dir. Hormoz - France - TLA Releasing - with Hubert Benhamdine, Caroline Ducey, Christine Boisson, Hicham Nazzal, Franck Victor, Hélène Michel

In the Arms of My Enemy [Voleurs de chevaux] - dir. Micha Wald - France/Belgium/Canada - Picture This! - with Grégoire Colin, Adrien Jolivet, François-René Dupont, Grégoire Leprince-Ringuet

Pleasure Factory - dir. Ekachai Uekrongtham - Thailand/Netherlands/Hong Kong - Strand Releasing - with Isabella Chen, Ananda Everingham, Zihan Loo, Kuei-Mei Yang, Jeszlene Zhou

The Bad!

Boystown [Chuecatown] - dir. Juan Flahn - Spain - TLA Releasing - with Pepón Nieto, Pablo Puyol, Carlos Fuentes, Concha Velasco, Rosa Maria Sardà, Eduard Soto

Eight Miles High [Das Wilde Leben] - dir. Achim Bornhak - Germany - Dokument Films - with Natalia Avelon, David Scheller, Matthias Schweighöfer, Friederike Kempter, Alexander Scheer, Victor Norén

Filth and Wisdom - dir. Madonna - UK - IFC Films - with Eugene Hutz, Holly Weston, Vicky McClure, Richard E. Grant, Inder Manocha

I've Loved You So Long [Il y a longtemps que je t'aime] - dir. Philippe Claudel - France/Germany - Sony Pictures Classics - with Kristin Scott Thomas, Elsa Zylberstein, Serge Hazanavicius, Laurent Grévill, Frédéric Pierrot, Claire Johnston

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull - dir. Steven Spielberg - USA - 20th Century Fox - with Harrison Ford, Cate Blanchett, Karen Allen, Shia LaBeouf, Ray Winstone, John Hurt, Jim Broadbent

Synecdoche, New York - dir. Charlie Kaufman - Sony Pictures Classics - with Philip Seymour Hoffman, Samantha Morton, Michelle Williams, Catherine Keener, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Hope Davis, Dianne Wiest, Emily Watson, Daniel London