Cinema on the Verge

BUMS

Bums is the type of comedic film that you have to admire for the simple fact that it’s creators, Brett and Jason Butler, put it together for next to nothing. And I don’t mean a paltry 1 million dollar budget here. I’m talking hundreds of dollars or maybe a couple of thousand plunked down to make it happen. That’s very little, if anything, in the movie world.

This, in essence, is what independent film making is all about. You have an idea, a script a, decent DV camera and a few actors with a couple a friends sprinkled in and you put the plan in motion. You put everything you have into it and maybe you strike gold and maybe you don’t. But sometimes the risk, the journey and knowledge gained from a modest production put you in a spot where you can swing again from a higher ground and nail it. Again, it’s best to approach Bums with an appreciation that these guys aren’t bankrolled by MGM or Paramount, nor are they getting subsidized by the Sundance institute. They simply have the will to make a film under limited resources and make the most of it. It’s why I started this blog and, again, it’s something to admire. And with that, I’ll begin my review.

Bums takes place in suburban Canada and, like most suburban environments, has a habit of paralyzing people with complacency despite the minds will to be bold. We begin with Dave (Jason Butler) trying to talk himself into breaking up with with his girlfriend, Jill (Tessa Sproule), in his car that’s parked by her house. He eventually walks to the door with swagger and confidence and breaks the news to her. He feels she’s a slut, she thinks it’s over her love for the Beatles. Afterwards, Dave embarks on his first day in a while as a single man. He’s met by his friend Dan (Brett Butler) who’s been single for a spell but down on his luck in the dating department. In the meantime, Jill and her friend Heather (Karen Suzuki) contemplate their hatred of dating men and spew bitterness toward all their past relationships with them. If you’re single and hit the bars looking to meet someone, you’ve seen these women. They’re ready to attack at even the slightest glance and appear to be having a miserable time yet look like a million bucks.

These 2 women have built an airtight defense about how any faltering of a relationship with a man is strictly the mans fault with little or no responsibility on them. They freely discuss wanting men but quickly emasculate them by saying how none of them ever were good enough to satisfy them in bed. They’ll speak of independence and even passive aggressively flirt with lesbian trysts, as we see here in Bums, but would never actually do it. The reality is that they’re afraid of being hurt and won’t let anyone in to experience what they truly want. While Jill and Heather drink the day away, (this film is just a single day in the lives of these characters) Dave and Dan make their way to score some hash from a bathrobe wearing dealer named D.O.P (Jeremiah McCann) and it’s here where we’re introduced to a philosophical young woman named Lucy (Tammy Gerus). Between the toking, pop culture references are made because in the suburban world, it’s inhabitants find meaning and live vicariously through them. It’s easier to cling to the events that unfolded on TV than take a risk.

The characters in Bums are funny and spout some witty and humorous dialog. It’s only upon closer examination that what many of them declare or claim to be are simply masks to cover their abhorrence to being alone. The film touches upon the unhealthy need to be with someone just to be with someone and committing to someone because it’s right. There are 2 characters that, by simply being themselves, find more reward in this single chronicled day than others. I really liked Bums. It reminded me of many episodes that I’ve gone through with my friends and the opposite sex and I estimate that I’ll have more adventures like this to follow. I laughed because the ground it was covering was familiar to me and I don’t mean in the sense that Jason and Brett Butler were rehashing old material. They’ve taken elements of what we see in something like a Kevin Smith film and give it their own personal touch. There’s split screen camera work and other editing touches here and there but what really won me over was the fact that these guys were having fun and telling a funny story about being young, unsure and, at times, Bums. If you’ve ever been single and bar hopping with a wing man or woman, you’ll find a lot to like about this film. Because let’s face it, we’ve all been there.

Brick

I wonder how the premise to “Brick” was pitched to producers. It’s basically a film noir set in a high school underworld played completely straight. The characters talk the type of slang you’d see in 1940’s detective films without the slightest hint of current vernacular. Sure it takes place in the present but throw a fedora on the protagonist Brendan (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and you’ve got a character that would make “Chinatown’s” Jake Gitties blush with envy.

Brick takes place in a southern California town where the local high school houses an array of future underworld figureheads in training. There’s the shady theater starlet Kara (Megan Good) who uses her dramatic chops to manipulate and connive her way up the social ladder. There’s Dode (Noah Segan) who hasn’t got a thing going for him and would basically be your homeless drunk or drug fiend in a more adult version of this film. Crime lords like The Pin (Lukas Haas) supply the drugs that keep the social circles happy and coming back for more and are assisted by bodyguards like Tugger (Noah Fleiss). And the worldly yet mysterious femme fatale Laura (Norah Zehetner) who works overtime to seduce our hero and loner Brendan. He doesn’t have many friends except for The Brain (Matt O’Leary) who has his ears open and finger on the pulse of what’s going down in school hallways. He’ll often provide the necessary intelligence and backup for Brendan’s investigations if you can call them that.

Brendan’s latest adventure is a personal one involving the death of his ex-girlfriend Emily (Emilie de Ravine) who is found dead by him in a massive storm drain. 2 days earlier she hit Brendan with a mysterious call in which she babbled to Brendan hysterically about a brick. Brendan tries in vain to win her back and get he to ditch the new social circle she’s begun to roll with. It’s the dangerous lot I described above and a hardened young lad like Brendan can clearly see she’s in over her head. But she won’t go back and pays the ultimate price, but how and why? And what is this brick anyway? This is where the homage to 40’s style noir kicks into high gear. Brendan can talk smack with the best of them, fight hand to hand with the toughest of them, negotiate his way through clandestine meetings, and evade attempts on his life by people who want him off the trail.

I sat through this film bemused and in awe that such worldly or hardened kids would result in a very satisfying viewing experience. An example; Laura who hosts a lavish party at her parents mansion while playing jazz music (no Jessica Simpson or boy band music) over the stereo and spouting poetry to her guests who actually appreciate it. She possesses the sophistication and refinement of women twice her age. This would normally result in the suspension of disbelief collapsing and me shutting the film off. Even the idea of high schoolers indulging in such activities would be laughable in the hands of anyone else except Writer/Director Rain Johnson. He’s done something very interesting here and I’m willing to bet that others will attempt it and fail miserably.

I’m not saying every high school kid is as dumb as a brick (no pun intended) because that simply isn’t true. I’m merely saying that the traits on display by these well developed characters are things most of us get with age. The film doesn’t care about this and simply tells it’s story with twist after twist in the tradition of classic nior. Adults, by the way, are nothing more than an obstacle in this film’s story development. You’ve got Richard Roundtree as Assistant V.P Trueman who’s the angry police chief of sorts and that’s it as far as significant adult characters go.

Absurd, ridiculous, unbelievable and foolishly bold, Johnson still gets this things to fire on all cylinders. I raise a glass and give a long nod of respect to you.

Well done.

Walk on Water

A very solid film out of Israel, “Walk on Water” tells the story of Mossad agent, Eyal (Lior Ashkenazi), who must befriend the grandchildren of a Nazi war criminal who’s still alive and must be eliminated. Eyal isn’t too excited about the assignment. Most of the younger Mossad agents find hunting down Nazi war criminals to be “so yesterday” and would rather sink their teeth into something more current. The film opens up with Eyal taking down a noted terrorist head in Turkey through a deadly injection. It makes front page news and leaves Eyal wanting more high profile missions.

However, there’s more to placing Eyal on this seemingly pedestrian mission than meets the eye. He came home to discover that his wife had committed suicide. Placing him in the middle of a sensitive mission could be dangerous. He’s loosing his edge. Add to this that Eyal is a hardened man, aside from his physical limitations that don’t allow him to cry, he was born with defective tear ducts, he’s also very angry. This seems to cut him off from the small pleasures in life or the bigger possibility of enlightenment.

Enter the German grandchildren. Axel (Knut Berger) is visiting his sister Pia (Caroline Peters) in Israel. She’s working on a kibbutz and Eyal will be Axel’s tour guide in an effort to get closer to the Nazi grandfather. Pia and Axel are both genuinely good people although a bit naive. Eyal and Axel drive around to all of the historic sites in Israel while Pia is working and it’s through these moments that the film gets interesting.

How do todays Germans feel about the Nazis? This is posed by Eyal to Axel. It’s an interesting question that you want to hear the answer on even if the story is fiction. Why do the Palestinians choose suicide bombing? Axel asks of Eyal who dismisses them as savages. The difference between these 2 men is that Axel is still curious and simply can’t let such important things go unanswered. His inquisitiveness is childlike yet sophisticated. Eyal has grown callus to the bombings as such an occasion means bad cell phone service and soft music over the radio for days after. The film has a wonderful back and fourth with these issues and you soon forget about the mission to kill the grandfather.

Director Eytan Fox covers so many great issues, that are both topical and personal, that you could make dozens of films from each of them. It’s in this way that the film disappointed me at first. Great topics are brought up but put down leaving me hungry for more. It wasn’t until later that I realized that Eyal and the issues that seem to be brought up and not followed through are a microcosm for where the nation of Israel is at with them. Fox is attempting to provoke but not answer these questions for us. It’s honest film making and certainly something for the people of Israel and anyone who watches this to discuss.

Downfall

The film begins with a brief interview featuring the real life Traudl Junge, the last personal secretary for Adolf Hitler. She confesses that she should have listened to her family and stayed home, but curiosity got the better of her, and she took the job. It’s from this premise that the film “Downfall” begins to tell it’s tale.

A young Junge (Alexandra Maria Lara) is lead, with several other young women, through a snowy path by Nazi solders to Hitler’s bunker. The Hitler we see, brilliantly played by Bruno Ganz, is a man slowly losing touch with the reality that’s just above him in the real world. Russian solders are advancing into Berlin and the ranks of German forces are rapidly deteriorating. None of this seems to matter to Junge or the other women, they’re star struck by Hitler’s presence. It’s not apparent to them that the weight of the war and impending loss seem to cause him to hunch as he walks. Nor is it obvious to them that his health is declining as the hand he repeatedly holds behind his back reveals a serious tremor. Instead, he comes across as a beleaguered but unflappable leader who will figure out how to turn the failing Nazi effort around. Junge and company are confident of this but Hitler’s officers know better. There are jokes about how they’ll greet Eisenhower when they surrender, questions about how Hitler came up with the names of forces and armies that don’t exist, profound regret over personal choices made, and pity over how far their leader has fallen. One early scene that sticks in my mind is Hitler presenting a boy no older than 10 with a medal for bravery, he took out 2 Russian tanks.

The final days of The Third Reich are told with painstaking detail in “Downfall.” The bunkered world beneath Berlin absolutely fascinated me. While civilians died and children were recruited to battle tanks on the streets of Berlin, the people in power wallowed in luxury and anguish just below it. Between the drinking and dance parties lead by Hitler’s girlfriend Eva Braun, there are serious discussions on how people will kill themselves and which ways are more efficient. Some elect to take poison, other’s prefer a bullet to the head. Some even elect to kill their children.

“Downfall” is ugly, captivating, riveting and beautiful in the sense that it’s able to handleDownfall so many different conflicts and questions that are still relevant today, so well. The Hitler portrayed by Gans is not a caricature nor is it an attempt “humanize” him into a sympathetic character. It simply tells a story of a very complex and vicious man who’s greatest enemy was not the advancing Russian solders but his own hated and lack of compassion.

Director Oliver Hirschbiegel has given us the definitive cinematic adaptation of how the Nazis fell. The final comments made by the real Traudl Junge on why she was let go and her encounter with a memorial plaque for Sophie Scholl really struck me as well. We’re never too young or old to find things out and make a difference before it’s too late.

The Squid and The Whale

Divorce! It happens every day, even to enlightened, literary couples like Bernard (Jeff Daniels) and Joan (Laura Linney) who seem to have a nice life going for them in the Park Slope section of Brooklyn. Their 2 sons, Walt (Jesse Eisenberg) and Owen (Frank Berkman) are soon caught up in the middle of a parental battle for affections in which each parent tries to paint the other as the villain. The result is elder son, Jesse aligning himself with his father, Bernard, and the younger son, Owen, siding with his mother Joan. As the lines in the sand are drawn, isolation sets in. The unfortunate side effects play out with some reckless and disturbing behavior from the kids. Their world has been turned upside and the normal changes that a child experiences growing up seem to be amplified and distorted by the divorce and selfish power plays of their parents.

I’ve been a fan of the heady writing and directing of Noah Baumbach since I saw “Kicking and Screaming” about 10 years ago. There he dissected the difficult transition from college kid to functional adult. The people in his films don’t speak in simple tongues, they gush with with literary exuberance. The verboseness shouldn’t turn you off as it’s very witty, humorous and insightful. Sometimes it’s better to hear his films than actually watch them, and that’s no knock on his directing, it’s just a testament to his gift for unique dialog.

The title of this film is an analogy that’s fleshed out poignantly in a scene at the end of the film. Baumbach has delivered another exceptional outing here that’s built from episodes of his own parents divorce. I really recommend this one.

Amores Perros

If you don’t like films with subtitles, too bad, your missing out on a great film here. Director Alejandro Gonzáles weaves 3 stories together that center around a tragic car accident and each characters relationship with their dogs. Sounds strange? Yes but if you see it, you’ll get it. This film analyzes how we treat each other and how every action can have a consequence that may not just affect the ones you know, but people you don’t. That latter half of the equation is where the 3 stories gain their footing and pull us in. Although each of the stories main characters come from vastly different backgrounds, there’s always the feeling that they’re all very desperate and in need of something more. The fragile floor beneath them can give way at any moment. There’s anguish, there’s pain, there’s suffering, there’s regret, but through it all, the film is also able to create a feeling of hope.

As for the dogs, be prepared to see some gruesome depictions of dog fighting and dead and bloody dog carcases being swept away like garbage. These moments may seem gratuitous but they’re necessary to set the films tone and metaphor. And trust me, there’s lots of metaphor in this film.

Lastly, Alejandro Gonzáles shot this film in Mexico City. As a result, we see a side of Mexico that we don’t normally get to see in films and I’m happy for it. I’m sick of the dust bowl towns and sombrero wearing hustlers seen in films like “Desperado” or “Zorro”. I have no problem with either of these, it’s just that there’s more to Mexico than that. Alejandro Gonzáles delivers something here by showing us the cosmopolitan socialites, the bums and the struggling working class in a city that’s just as culturally rich and diverse as the next big one. In that respect, this film is very much like “Crash” but on a smaller scale and just as deep if not more so. You also get lots of dogs on the screen who are pretty good actors in their own right here.