Night of the jackal

Sleepwalk With Me

Crit

So, we're waiting for the movie to start, and we're talking about cast (yeah, I'd already told him my talking-to-Lauren Ambrose-at-Frank Pepe's story--wait, I haven't told you that story? Well, another time), and he mentions that Carole King is in it, which surprises me, because I'd never seen her in a film, which I say, which surprises him because he has, except it turns out he means Carol Kane, so yeah, of course, and I mention my favorite of the dozen or so films I've loved her in, even citing her character's name (Alison Porchnik) and quoting some dialogue, so that's why I was thinking of Annie Hall even before the film started.

Which made it really easy to see the debt this film owes that one: standup comic talking directly to us much of the time, telling a story about his inability to commit to the most wonderful woman he'll ever know. Except of course that this is lot less about general neurosis and more about the protagonist's chronic sleep disorder, apparently triggered by tension over the impossibility of the relationship.

An interesting film, and one that inevitably makes you wonder just exactly how autobiographical it is (mostly, apparently).

The devil wears Brooks Brothers

Broadcast News

(1987)

A project to be completed by the end of the year: to compile a list of my top ten favorite cinematic portrayals of drunkenness. While watching the one from this that will be high on the list (maybe as high as #2), I immediately thought of three others, including the almost certain #1, but I didn't want to take the time to do full research tonight.

Meanwhile, here's how I feel about this film: if James L. Brooks had been a creative force behind only one piece of dramatic art in his life, this is the one I'd need the most. And I think you know how I feel about that cartoon show he put together with Matt Groening.

Let's stay together

Hope Springs

Crit

I was disinclined to see this, but apart from the general critical praise, a trusted colleague loved it against her expectations, so I was in--and oh, my, so surprisingly good. First, yes, of course, Streep and Jones and Carell are great, duh, and each does wonderful work with just the face. When they're in counseling sessions, Kay and Arnold on opposite ends of the sofa, it's always profitable to watch the face of the one when the other is talking.

But that's to be expected--what I didn't expect is what a brave film it is, well beyond treating a topic, the rekindling of love and romance and even sex in a sexagenarian couple. Far riskier than that are the sometimes almost glacial rhythms of the film--long stretches go by during which nothing happens but talk, or nothing happens but the same emotional logjams that have been happening. And in fact, for a good 30 or 40 minutes it seems like an emotionally-stonewalling-husband fish-in-a-barrel shoot. But that turns out to be a brilliant, dangerous misdirection, and when the cracks start to show in Arnold's armor, the stakes are raised and the blood begins to pump. By false starts and small victories and hard work--that's how the film proceeds, the same way things get better in a relationship.

Oh, and a musical postscript: wouldn't have expected to hear a song in this soundtrack that I just heard in last night's, but darned if we don't have Al Green singing the song whose title I've borrowed for the post's.

Trailers

• Zero Dark Thirty--Geez, a movie on taking out bin Laden already?
• Cirque du Soleil: Worlds Away--In 3D, of course.
• Skyfall--Bond is back, and Imax has got him.

Goes to show you never can tell

Pulp Fiction

(1994)

The thing that dawned on me for the first time this time: if not for the high level of sexual tension between Vincent and Mia, which keeps Vincent in the bathroom for an extraordinarily long time lecturing himself on the moral and ethical imperatives of his situation, Mia wouldn't have been left alone with his overcoat long enough to have discovered the heroin, mistaken it for cocaine, and snorted it with potentially fatal results.

Another thing I noticed for the first time, though it's not remotely epiphanic: Laura Lovelace, who plays the diner waitress ("'Garçon' means 'boy'"), is one of two credited musical consultants for the film. Nice work.

Memories are made of this

Robot & Frank

Crit

An amusement that wants to be more but just doesn't have the software for it. Frank Langella is terrific, of course, as a career cat burglar facing age dementia, and Peter Sarsgaard benignly channels HAL as the voice of the other title character, but the film forgets a critical principle in fantasy: make everything not of the fantasy follow normal logic. So don't, e.g., allow a plainly unbalanced complainant to come along first on a police investigation, then on a stakeout and bust. Class this as a likable couldabeen.

Of the people by the people for the people

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

(1939)

Needed a post-GOP convention political palate cleanser, but one thing that hit me harder this time than ever before is what a Fox News-like operation the Taylor machine's media juggernaut is. Keep the free press free, yo.

White rabbit

The Bourne Legacy

Crit

Funnest part of this is when the Manila police are chasing him, though they don't really know why, and they're chasing her because she has seen them first while out getting him medicine and has shouted a warning to him, and while running away from the police, he's also trying to find her 'cause they're clearly becoming more than a team, and meanwhile, unbeknownst to everybody but us, the new and improved killing machine from Bangkok is chasing both of them with a mind to termination with extreme prejudice.

Or maybe the best part is the motorcycle chase that follows, I dunno. Anyway, none of that is the most confusing part, which comes much earlier and involves bloodless murderous bureaucrats setting said extremely prejudiced termination in motion.

Trailers

• Life of Pi--Ang Lee does magic realism? Sure, I'm in--gotta be better than when he did comic book.
• Les Misérables--Anne Hathaway does beaten down & uglied up, and sings? Maybe.