Reviews: 500 Days of Summer, Julie & Julia, G. I. Joe, and 9

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Since I have been so backed up here, at A Year in Film, in providing the blog its original content (i. e., my reviews), I've decided to combine posting the reviews for the four outstanding films that I have seen within the last two months into one concise entry and so sweep the desk clean of its pile at once. So, without further ado, here we go:

500 Days of Summer - Genre: Comedy (Romantic)

This film is a mixed bag of faults and redeeming qualities. While Joseph Gordon-Levitt knows not how to be other than pleasing, Zooey Deschanel oddly protrudes herself throughout the piece as though determined to become more than just the female lead in another romantic comedy. Such bravura, if one has caught my tone, counteracts whatever charm she may otherwise have had in the rôle and - frankly - made me more tired of her, the more she appeared. Still, the rôle she played was on paper a droll one: flirtatiously light and counterbalanced nicely by the darker, amber tones of her opposite, Mr. Gordon-Levitt's wistfully indie anti-hero--protagonist. Indeed, the film has that independent appeal for all its cast, its soundtrack, and even its left-of-center glamour but it also has something of a wish too strongly to be so: In the wake of burgeoning indie-to-mainstream-pop sensibility, roused most passionately in recent memory by the popular acclaim to the film Juno (2007), 500 Days like many other films has flocked toward that whistling demographic of young outsider-wannabes, who in the tropes of previous petites coquettes, like those who followed Cher in Clueless (1995), may shell out the major bucks to claim as distinctly their own a part of a film marketed, like they themselves, as particularly "artificially original." Yet, what is a good independent soundtrack without the insertion of the rightfully upheld songs of an '80s' artist like The Smiths anyway? O, the tennis-like effect of a film so equivocally designed. In the end, however, despite whatever uncertainties one may have about how best to diagnose its hemmings and musical scenes, one must remember that this film is a member of the genre Comedy (Romantic) and, as such, can hardly be expected to have much loftier aspirations as a film than imbuing good feelings into its viewers - and at that feat it largely as a work succeeds - no deeper investigation warranted.

For that reason, I feel compelled to give it Grade: B-, fair but unextraordinary; good for a good time.

Julie & Julia - Genre: Comedy / Biopic

Though this film isn't a member of the genre Comedy (Romantic) as its predecessor in this posting, it is certainly kin to that genre's essence, as it excels at producing that jubilant, life-is-good feeling for its spectators' easy consumption. Of course, this production is vastly helped by the talents of its leading ladies, Ms. Meryl Streep and Ms. Amy Adams, who despite never truly sharing a scene together click their two halves of the movie together in a tone quite natural to their preexisting partnerships: harmonious and fine. Ms. Streep is of course a regular wonder as the late Julia Child and gives a performance for which she, no doubt, will receive no few of accolades, come the accolade-giving end-of-year time; and Ms. Adams ventures back to her poppy Junebug (2005) roots, to deftly deepen her character beyond the two-dimensional neurotic that she no doubt had been on paper. This slight is not to say that Ms. Ephron's screenplay was in any serious way lacking; it was actually quite well put together and - even more interesting - quite well realized in cadence and progression that, while perhaps optimistic, never become sillily so. A true feel-good movie, there is not much more to say than

Grade: B, appropriately sweet fare for even the discerning palate.

G. I. Joe - Genre: Action / Fantasy

I saw this film at a drive-in where - believe me or not - it was the best-sounding option on the marquee. Quite simply a loose frenzy most analogous to filmic diarrhea, G. I. Joe tried to be filled with the nonchalant cool factor that sells so well to the male set, aged 8-18, and perhaps would have succeeded except for just about everything technical to do with it: Ghastlily poor visual effects underwhelmed an effects-hungry spectatorship and harried cinematography was enough for the film to warrant a motion-sickness disclaimer. Editing was equally sporadic and costumes and make-up, merely enough to make their dressed parties look believable. I refuse to even consider the screenplay. All in all, a heterogeneous, separated colloid of mud fat, lubed up and ready for action: more pointedly, a

Grade: D, for dull and for dippy.

9 - Genre: Animated / Drama

Of all these four films, I think, it was this one for which I had the highest hopes when entering the theatrical venue. Then I was recalling the triumph that was the original material for this feature: the short film that co-writer--director Shane Acker made some few years ago, without considering the future possibility that it could take on a larger stature and larger reception.That short film, also titled 9 (2005), more deftly told the story of the protagonist character 9 whom the action of the feature's storyline follows like a needy puppy. Though that comment is not to say that 9 as a character is himself boring, it is to say that 9 as a character isn't very complex. All the characters involved in fact are quite 2-dimensional, interested in pursuing only one goal to the exclusion of all others and interested in pursuing that goal only in the way(s) in which he himself or she herself has solely established. The conflict then, if one can call the obvious plot device for tension a true conflict, is hopelessly simple as a result; and the artificial lengths to which the writers attempted to draw it out felt more and more obviously contrived as they were progressing. While there is no denying that the actual animation of 9, the film, is beautiful, one must remember that, as a filmmaker, one must provide a compelling narrative to be portrayed by one's compelling images; pretty faces without pretty minds are pretty dumb and I'd hate to use such a word as "dumb" in conjunction with a review of your work, Mr. Acker, who I am confident has more and better things still to offer, in the fture. For now though, let us call the spade the spade and call 9 a

Grade: C, a tragic disappointment, confused by the laws that for its fictional reality it was free to create and vexed by the feature-length timeframe that it was optioned to occupy.

Essay: That Hamilton Woman (1941)

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Molly Haskel, a staffed writer for The Village Voice and Vogue, has beautifully written an essay on The Criterion Collection's September release That Hamilton Woman (1941) for the Criterion Current. I encourage you, if in the mood for some heady and illuminating words about the production and its stars' both on-screen and real-life affairs, to check it out here.

Announcement: The November Criterion Blu-Ray Release

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The Criterion Collection has literally just (i. e., moments ago as well as moments during the typing of this post) posted on its website the titles of the three new films and the (fourth) anthology being added to the Collection this November, 2009 - and, wow, two of them are very recent! The Blu-Ray release, which will also be available on DVD, is the 2008 Italian film Gomorra by director Matteo Garrone; and one of the DVD releases is the 2008 French film A Christmas Tale by director Arnaud Desplechin. The earlier film is 1969's Downhill Racer, directed by Michael Ritchie, and the anthology is The Golden Age of Television, a series of 1950s' teleplays (by various directors) curated in the early 1980s by PBS.

Huzzah: I've been wanting to see A Christmas Tale! Happy anticipation, everyone.

P. S. It seems that Criterion's releases of A Christmas Tale and Gomorra are part of a larger burgeoning partnership between Criterion and IFC, the Independent Film Channel. According to a number of online news' chroniclers (e. g., here and here), this partnership, which was recently finalized, essentially grants Criterion the rights to distribute select films from the IFC family on DVD and Blu-Ray in the United States - though it is unclear which of the two will do the actual selecting. In whichever case, in addition to the select titles already announced, the partnership will also extend to include the as yet unannounced Criterion releases of other recent IFC films like Che (2008) and Hunger (2008), whose leading actor Michael Fassbinder received a nomination for Best of the year by this blogger for his work therein. Furthermore, the partnership will not only reach out into the future of IFC's filmic acquisitions, but will also reach back, into the past, to repolish for distribution some of the film house's previous titles, like the wonderful Y Tu Mamá También (2001), which apparently may be expected within the next year. As one of course trusts for the best from Criterion, this news is greeted here, at A Year in Film, with thorough excitement for what other offerings this new partnership may hold as we elope from this year in film into the next and beyond.

Announcement: Kate Winslet and Todd Haynes!

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From Variety: Kate Winslet has just (officially?) signed herself onto the new Mildred Pierce adaptation that (may I say, avant-garde) director Todd Haynes is developing for (HBO?) this fall. Swoon!

Though Variety goes so far as to speculate as to the reasons why a newly minted actress would take as her next project a made-for-TV movie, I felt no such reservations or prejudices, for it can hardly be said that the medium makes the project - the medium rather than the writer/director, who is in this case amazing.

Review: District 9

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Genre: Science-Fiction / Action-Adventure

In the spirit of reinvigorating the original content on this blog, I am now catching up on my unposted reviews (e. g., Public Enemies, Brüno, 500 Days of Summer) by posting this unexpected review of this unexpectedly seen and - dare I say - well received new film, by director and co-writer Neill Blomkamp. It, District 9 - a title that bears the name of the fictional site of its film's action, located in the former seat of apartheid: Johannesburg, South Africa - is indeed an action-based film, even as it traverses bounds well beyond that of the typical action-adventure and flows its way, like a somewhat spectacularly well connected river, channelling through the various social issues that underscore phenomena like racism, stigma, the unknown, the outsider/other, education, consent, ambition, loyalty, and humanity (i. e., what it means to be "human"). With such a spectacular array of topics, one would expect it to be relatively discombobulated, shooting out at ideas perhaps as an overzealous octopus; but, perhaps in order to appease more than the hoards of contemporary fanboys who may flock, as the designated demographic, to the film for its 'aliens v. humans [with cool weapons]' appeal, the film makes use of its sullen, pale tones; rapid cuts and pacing; and fantastical storyline competently enough to bring them all together, to undiffuse the array and concentrate it into a directed and singular ray: a philosopher's stream of consciousness perhaps, that rests on interrelated topics for sometimes the breadth of an instant, in perpetual attempt to find the elemental and binding truth of it all - such an attempt itself, the crucial aspect of any and all science-fiction.

Of course, the more basic tropes of science fiction are there, buried inextricably in the premise and the ultimate resolution of the storyline: the sudden presence of a demonstratively "other [being];" the ensuing internal identity-struggle, actively externalized as a physical struggle; and the manifest resolution that you and he, the self and the other, are none but one in the same. And, of course, these tropes are aptly enough conveyed - nothing unusual. Yet, then quite without warning, they flower, as though dried Asian tea-flowers quietly immersed in water, into the expansive array of questioning and ideas that I've mentioned before.

In the background of post-apartheid South Africa, segregation reemerges as an easy parallel. Human rights issues clutter the fore for a good while, with consent and equality in freedom (despite rank, race, or respect of education) churning the clutterous stew for a while. Then drop in stigma and varied ambition, the psychology of organizations, and the classic 'rules and regulations v. common sense;' and finally ices the piece the essence of humanity, or the overriding morality of being. Though the film is rare to rest upon any one of these ideas consistently or longly enough for it to be declared a serious argument of perspective or personal politics on behalf of the writers and the director, it still weaves a powerful tapestry of questions that its interconnected scenes supply the resources by which those scenes' spectators may answer.

While I'm not very accustomed to waxing on in this way about such a mixture of genres and ideas as there may be found in this film, I am thrilled that I can give myself lieve to do so here. Though I fear for the future of this perhaps newly minted series of films - fear that the sequels that are, no doubt, tipping the tongues of the writer-director and his producers may lose the inquisitive but entirely competent sparkle that has made this (initial?) film special - I nevertheless celebrate District 9 for all its successful challenges and allusions.

Grade: B+, a river run well tread and ventured.

Trailer: New York, I Love You

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A sequel of sorts to the fun and popular Paris, Je T'Aime (2006), New York, I Love You is similarly an anthology of short films about love found, lost, and otherwise held in a major city - here specifically in the five boroughs of New York City -- translation: delightfully easy summer fare. Watch the trailer here. Cheers!

Box Art: Monsoon Wedding (2001)

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The Criterion Collection has announced the official box art (right) for its upcoming Blu-Ray and DVD releases of Mira Nair's Monsoon Wedding (2001), due in October alongside Howards End (1992) and Wings of Desire (1987).

Trailer: The Fantastic Mr. Fox

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Following up on yesterday's posting, I bring you (via Awards Daily) the trailer for Wes Anderson's stop-motion locomotion, The Fantastic Mr. Fox:

"I don't have a bandit hat, but I modified this tube sock."

Trailer: A Serious Man

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Yay, another trailer for you: this time one from writers/directors Joel and Ethan Coen, one beautifully shot by Roger Deakins, one for a film entitled A Serious Man - click the link to view.

Announcement: Wes Anderson Does Stop-Motion(!)

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Via Awards Daily: Wes Anderson, all-around auteur, is now venturing his talents, keenly grown in the world of live-action film-making, into the parallel world of stop-motion film-making: specifically, in his upcoming feature The Fantastic Mr. Fox, which is slated for theatrical release in November of this year. As a personal enthusiast of Mr. Anderson and his work, I am surprised to have to admit that this occasion is the first in which I'm hearing of this film, especially when considering its within-six-months release. Adapted from the classic Roald-Dahl book of the same title, preview photos for the film seem to indicate that Mr. Anderson has deferred none of his own classic, stylistic choices in bringing the tale to the "silver screen;" a large, skillful cast, elaborate sets and interiors, and a distinctive photographic eye paint what's sure to be another memorable addition to his and film's œuvre. At its very least, the film is instantly one of my year's-end, most highly anticipated works; in short, I am so excited! (The trailer will be posted as soon as it is released.)