Instead of doing schoolwork, Street Film spent much of last week obsessively attending Philadelphia Film Festival screenings. Many of these films won’t be released for quite some time, but we’ve compiled a sequence of mini–reviews of movies that should and shouldn’t be on your radar.
BLUE VALENTINE
Director Derek Cianfrance proves that the mirror–image of the formation of a relationship is its disintegration, cross–cutting the blissful beginnings of love with its inevitable unraveling in Blue Valentine. Williams and Gosling simultaneously play a young couple desperately in love and the older versions of themselves, desperately clinging to the vows they once made in the heat of their passion.
Both Williams and Gosling deliver devastating performances in what amounts to be two separate roles each — one marked by youthful passion, the other with a world–weary numbness. This parallelism of structure brilliantly captures both the impracticality of the couple’s love while at the same time demonstrating the unavoidability of its progression. By the end of the film, one is both delighted by the scenes of their marriage ceremony and heartbroken by the final confrontation that ends their marriage. One event couldn’t happen without the other, and it’s a testament to the empathy evoked by the film’s script and acting that the audience realizes this without being any less heartbroken at its injustice.
5/5 Stars
Directed by: Derek Cianfrance
Starring: Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams
— Elizabeth Horkley
I LOVE YOU PHILLIP MORRIS
After a near–fatal car accident, Steven Russell (Carrey) broadcasts a fact he’s kept secret since childhood: he is gay. Adopting a flamboyant and self–destructive lifestyle as a con man, he ends up in prison where he falls in love with the beautiful Phillip Morris (McGregor), a fellow inmate. What follows is a tale (based on a true story) of obsessive stealing, rule–breaking and, ultimately, undying love.
In what is surely his best performance since Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Carrey steals the screen with a nuanced and heartfelt comedic performance. Audiences will certainly be shocked to see a character both so criminal and so gay. But the film doesn’t equate the two. It is the queer version of Catch Me If You Can, and its brashness deserves praise and attention. Between the laughs is an outrageous yet surprisingly touching romance that has the potential to be a cult comedy.
4/5 Stars
Directed by: Glenn Ficarra and John Requa
Starring: Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor
— Nick Stergiopoulos
UNCLE BOONMEE WHO CAN RECALL HIS PAST LIVES
The Palme d’Or winner of this year’s Cannes Film Festival confirms Apichatpong Weerasethakul as one of the most innovate filmmakers working today. The Thai director’s experimental style is likely to alienate many moviegoers, but that’s because he doesn’t care at all about standard cinematic conventions like plot and continuity. He instead presents a visually immersive aesthetic in which the earthly and the supernatural overlap, a lyrical poem with no true beginning or end.
The film centers around Boonmee, a villager dying of kidney failure. On his deathbed, he is visited by his sister-in-law, his wife’s ghost and his son, who has become a monkey spirit. The ideas of evolution and rebirth inform much of the sublime imagery, which transports us into a mysterious, and at times comical, world that resists singular interpretations. Uncle Boonmee interweaves Thai mythology, Buddhist philosophy and political conflict in a cryptic yet poignant meditation on death, memory and what it means to care for one another.
5/5 Stars
Directed by: Apichatpong Weerasethakul
Starring: Thanapat Saisaymar
— Nick Stergiopoulos
HESHER
It seems like only a year ago Joseph Gordon-Levitt was America’s sweetheart, a man-boy with enough good looks and delicate emotions to melt your heart and make you listen to Hall and Oates on repeat.
Well, 2009 is over. This is 2010, and after upping his badass credentials with Inception, JGL cranks the “motherfucker” dial up in his latest film, Hesher.
Gordon-Levitt plays the long-haired, chain-smoking, death-metal-listening title character, whose primary joys in life include telling dirty stories and lighting cars on fire. For some inexplicable reason, Hesher moves into the home of 13-year-old T.J. (Devin Brochu). T.J.’s mother has just died and his father (Rainn Wilson) and grandmother (Piper Laurie) are too distracted to notice the new house-guest. Natalie Portman somehow gets involved, and ridiculous events ensue. Weird, funny and occasionally poignant, Hesher is a refreshingly different kind of movie. Just don’t expect any of that Angels in the Outfield bullshit.
4/5 Stars
Directed by: Spencer Susser
Starring: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Devin Brochu, Natalie Portman, Rainn Wilson
— Jack Stanley
CERTIFIED COPY
James Miller (Shimell) is a writer giving a lecture in Tuscany on his latest book about the value of reproduction in art, best summarized by the subhead: “forget the original, just get a good copy.” A woman (played by Juliette Binoche in a role that won her the Best Actress award at Cannes) walks in and arranges a private meeting with the author. He meets her at her antique shop and they spend a day together discussing art, love and life at large.
But this isn’t just another Before Sunset–esque romance. When a woman at a café mistakes them for husband and wife and they fail to correct her, they engage in an all too real role-play that soon makes us wonder whether they are role-playing at all. The overarching question: “what is the value of a copy?” permeates the film, as it is subdivided in the sometimes frustrating queries “are we witnessing a copy, is this the real thing and does it even really matter?” Abbas Kiarostami’s first venture outside of Iran is a stunningly photographed film that will make you feel sure only of the extent of your uncertainty.
4.5/5 Stars
Directed by: Abbas Kiarostami
Starring: Juliette Binoche and William Shimell
— Sara Brenes Akerman
PEEP WORLD
Peep World takes the tired dysfunctional family storyline and gives it a less-than-refreshing twist; the action centers on a book that reveals the family’s secrets. The film is essentially an episode of Arrested Development with an added heap of clichés and a decreased dose of humor. The glimpses we are given into the characters’ lives are rife with stereotypes; we see the sensible, career-driven brother (Hall), the fledgling creative spirit (Silverman) and the fuck-up (Wilson) do exactly what we expect them to do when their brother Nathan (Schwartz) publishes his illuminating book.
Even the film’s highlights are predictable. In one of the only laugh-out-loud scenes, Nathan ODs on a Vicodin equivalent that is injected directly into the penis, resulting in a boner that lasts nearly the length of the film. These laughs are too infrequent, allowing the melodramatic script to take control and preventing Hall, Silverman and Wilson from hitting their comedic strides. With such a promising cast, it must have been difficult to produce a disappointing film, but the makers of Peep World rose to the challenge.
1/5 Stars
Directed by: Barry Blaustein
Starring: Michael C. Hall, Sarah Silverman, Rainn Wilson, Ben Schwartz
— Megan Reilly
THUNDER SOUL
Mark Landsman, director of the documentary Thunder Soul, weaves his audience through an emotional and inspirational rollercoaster of power, black identity and sincere love as he investigates the fervor and talent of a former 1970s high school funk group, the Kashmere Stage Band. Located in Houston, Texas, the Kashmere High School Stage Band exploded under the musical dexterity and vigor of Conrad O. Johnson, and is now, after over 30 years, reformed by the alumni that initiated its fame.
The documentary is well pieced together, following a logical flow of events under both time and emotion, and its messages are articulately expressed. It binds together the excitement and pride of a young funk band, with emotive events such as the reemerging spark of musical love among the band’s members and the eventual passing of esteemed Mr. Johnson. Landsman delves into the core of Black Nationalism to vividly demonstrate how power and love that can emerge from musical passion and fashion idea into inspiration.
3.5/5 Stars
Directed by: Mark Landsman
— Jordan Sorokin
THE WOLF KNIFE
A coming of age drama about the halcyon days of teenagehood? Not so much. This stuffy, low–budget film follows Chrissy and June, scantily clad best friends on a trip to Nashville who encounter nothing short of rugged juvenile intimacy and exploitation of everything pure and unadulterated. On an ostensible journey to find Chrissy’s father after her mother’s creepy boyfriend proposes, Chrissy lures June to accompany her in order to indulge in her voyeuristic and lesbian tendencies. This amalgam of sexual frustration, confusion and vulnerability falls short of a cohesive point of view and only prompts the viewer to cringe at certain moments.
The film is mostly dull, dissolving into an abyss of monotony. There is no dearth of unconvincing acting, coupled with sloppy editing and long awkward silences that in no way enhance what Nakadate, the director, was going for. Perhaps if the storyline were more compelling, the gaping inadequacies of the film would not be as striking. Unfortunately, no such luck.
1/5 Stars
Directed by: Laurel Nakadate
Starring: Christina Kolozsvary, Julie Potratz and Dave Cloud
— Lara Berns
