2013: The Year in Film: "Her" Review

 

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Spike Jonze, former music video wunderkind and hipster auteur extraordinaire, is one of the truly unique voices in American film today. His films, of which Her is the fourth, following Being John Malkovich, Adaptation, and Where the Wild Things Are, are, in a word, different. Even the adaptation of the Maurice Sendak children's book is heartfelt, visually distinctive and features a wholly unique voice. So enters his newest flick, which he both wrote and directed, Her.  

Her is set in an imagined near future Los Angeles where technology and gadgets have continued to advance an isolate us to the point where the newest OS for mobile devices is a sentient artificial intelligence. Our protagonist is a lonely, introspective letter writer (ugh, I know) going through a divorce who decides to buy the new OS... and finds himself drawn into a surprising and confusing relationship with Samantha, his new OS.

The Good: this film is both fanciful and grounded in a very recognizable reality, and that's not easy to do. Jonze's visuals are soothing and bright, evocative of the kind of future we should all hope for. At the same time, the film draws on interesting philosophical questions on the relationship between man and the technology we've created, a line that becomes increasingly blurred with every passing year.  The scenario envisioned in Her is virtually a foregone conclusion at this point, and the speculation on the issue in this film is a unique and emotional one.  All of this is grounded in the quality of the central performance. Joaquin Phoenix, as strange as he is, and as goofy as he looks in this role, is one of our very finest actors, and he imbibes Theo with a tender sadness, sensitivity and humanity.  The film's central relationship, between man and machine, would have fallen flat on its face in the hands of a lesser actor.  Scarlett Johannson's voice work is tremendous as well.



The Bad: Ultimately, I'm not sure that this film rings that true for me on closer examination.  I feel like truly sentient AI as depicted in this film would likely completely revolutionize human existence on a scale that this film ignores. That's most likely my own nerdiness getting in the way of the story at hand, but it seems likely that mega corporations and governments would likely use AI to their own ends before releasing it as a consumer product, and this initial use would render our society unrecognizable.  With that being said, I'm fine with the film as a fable of sorts, but it seems odd that the city of LA is THAT nice in the future. Theo lives in a million dollar loft on... a letter writer's salary? That seems like a cushy gig. Ultimately, these are relatively minor quibbles, but they were very distracting for me.

Ultimately, this is a smart, tender, emotional flick with a lot to say about human relationships with ourselves, with one another and with our technology, and it features a tremendously acted and tender love story at its heart.  It's a little hipsterific, but I don't really mind. I feel like this is a vision of the future and the larger human condition worth sharing, and one of the more unique and worthwhile films of the last few years.

8.5/10.

2013: The Year in Film: "The Wolf of Wall Street" Review

Late? YOU BET.

Let's talk The Wolf of Wall Street, guys, as this one caused quite the stir upon its release.  First: Martin Scorsese is an absolute legend of the silver screen. The guy is 71 years old, has been releasing meaningful, crucial films for more than 4 decades now. Taxi Driver is 40 years old! Most filmmakers who were releasing classics in the 70's are either dead or have long ceased to be relevant in a creative sense. As Spielberg has long passed into bloated sentimentality and Coppola has faded into irrelevance, Scorsese is releasing kinetic, controversial, mad cap romps that display the confrontational irreverence of a man 40 years his junior. In Wolf, he's re-teamed with his new De Niro, Leonardo DiCaprio, for the 5th time now.

Wolf of Wall Street, titled after a memoir of the same name, follows a young stockbroker named Jordan Belfort as he seeks to break into the big time by any means necessary.  Through hubris, greed, innovative practices, and an uncompromising desire to do whatever it takes for success, Belfort builds an empire from nothing, exploiting, stealing, breaking the law and abusing whoever gets in his path all the way.

The Good: the enthusiasm of all involved in this production is infectious. The film is kinetic, engaging, and almost manic in its unyielding nihilism in the service of the true American religion: the almighty dollar.  Everyone is having so much fun that at times its tough to remember that what they are doing is despicable, giving financial scammers the same treatment afforded to mobsters in Scorsese's classic Goodfellas.  DiCaprio's performance is infectious, as he imbibes the persona of the sleazy Belfort. Jonah Hill is electric as his friend and business partner, Donnie Azoff, and I quite enjoyed Jon Bernthal's depiction of sleazy drug dealer/sometimes associate Brad. Matthew McConaughey is in this film for roughly 15 minutes, and steals every damn one of them.  The film is often funny, just as often revolting, and electric from front to back. It's a three hour film that has more uses of the F-word and its derivatives than any film in history, and I couldn't take my eyes off the screen.



The Bad: if anything, everyone is having so damn much fun that it's easy to lose sight of the deeper message, and that's what led to the bulk of the criticism of the film on its release. In this way, it's also not unlike Goodfellas.  The sex and drug use and good times are relentless and occasionally gratuitous, and I can see how that would be distracting and/or disturbing for more squeamish tastes.

Ultimately, this film is a joy to watch, but ultimately more important for what it represents: a time-capsule type view of a corrupt institution and the kind of people who inhabit this world, who also happen to be the wealthiest and most powerful people on the planet.  To me, my biggest takeaway was that Belfort and Co., despite their scumbaggery, aren't even that big time. They were dealing in hundreds of millions in a circle where billionaires are oddly common. (Yet another similarity with Goodfellas)  In the end, this film becomes the white collar Goodfellas, and one that will stick around for decades, so that we can (hopefully!) look back on the outlandish decadence of the height of Wall Street's power with disbelief after we, as a society, have brought the financial industry to some measure of reasonable control. If Wolf of Wall Street seems unbelievable, it's because the wealth and power of Wall Street truly is unbelievable.

A fun flick that ultimately has a lot to say about the power structures and incentives of our society, and ultimately paints an unflattering view of the role of greed and material wealth in America today. I kind of loved it, but I'll acknowledge that it's not for everyone.

8.5/10.

2013: The Year in Film: "American Hustle" Review

Yep. This review is the latest thing ever. This movie isn't even new on DVD... I'm pretty sure I've owned it since March. Let's just pretend, shall we?

David O'Russell is on an insane roll lately, you guys. After an early career that included the insanely underrated Three Kings, since 2010 he's released The Fighter (so good, you guys) and Silver Linings Playbook, which is one of the best romantic comedies of the last 20 years and a pretty darn good sports movie to boot. So his latest film features an absolutely stacked cast, reuniting with Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence, who starred in Silver Linings, and Amy Adams and Christian Bale, who were great and perfect in The Fighter and adding Jeremy Renner in a fictionalized account of the FBI's ABSCAM operation of the 1970's.

The Good: the performances are, in a word, great. Christian Bale is understated and unrecognizable as a paunchy small-time con artist who finds himself forced to work with law enforcement. Amy Adams turns in a solid performance as his mistress and partner and Bradley Cooper once again proves that he's more than just a pretty face. Jennifer Lawrence, despite the fact that she's easily 10 years too young to convincingly play mom and housewife to Christian Bale, is incredibly likable, charming and often hilarious and almost succeeds in making you forget that she's 23 years old and playing a character who's probably supposed to be 35.  The film is often charming and funny, if a bit scattered, but the performances hold everything together. The settings, costume design, music and atmosphere are very convincing, and if the reaction of my parents was any indication, this film nails the 70's.

The Bad: this film wants SO badly to be "important".  It wants to be an instant classic in the vein of the golden age of American film. Unfortunately... it's not. That's not to say that it's bad, far from it, it's just nowhere near as significant and timely as it thinks it is. And that's fine. A film isn't required to be a classic in order to have value... but when a film is explicitly setting out to be "a classic" from the jump... that becomes problematic. Ultimately, this film is trying to say SOMETHING so damn hard that it almost ends up saying nothing at all. Were this a film by a lesser filmmaker featuring lesser talent that would hardly be a complaint, but unfortunately this film falls victim to the weight of its expectations, as unfair as that may be.



Ultimately, if you're a fan of David O'Russell and/or great acting across the board, you could do much worse than American Hustle and you'll probably quite enjoy it. Unfortunately, given the talent involved, you can't help but be a LITTLE disappointed by the whole thing.  It's good, it's just not amazing, and as unfair a standard that is to hold  film to, it's applicable here. The whole thing ends up feeling a bit picturesque, as if we're dropped in to get a portrait of the life and times of these people, who ultimately we don't care that much about. Great, great performances and an ultimately fun film, but in the end it has less poignancy about greed and American corruption than does another holiday awards favorite: The Wolf of Wall Street.

7.5/10.