Tribeca 2010: Get Low
Posted by Ryan Sarver
Anyone who’s read Harper Lee’s classic To Kill a Mockingbird has spent at least a moment musing over the intriguing hermitage of Boo Radley; through the course of the novel, Scout and her brother recount countless childhood legends regarding the man’s supposedly tragic past, including everything from child abuse to stabbing. So is the nature of Get Low’s protagonist, Felix Bush (Robert Duvall), a man who, after spending forty years hidden inside a shack in the woods, wants a living funeral party where he can hear the many legends that have grown around his life. Unlike Boo Radley, Felix’s past is legitimately spotted with tragedy—a truth slowly and cryptically revealed through interactions with Mattie Darrow (Sissy Spacek). After allowing this secret to consume his life for many years, Felix makes arrangements with Frank Quinn (Bill Murray), his funeral director, to allow time for confession at his party. This film is a spectacular piece of work that invites audiences to mull over their own inner-demons—is at once a tale of redemption and condemnation—while entreating them to a lovable cast of characters. It’s a promising debut for director Aaron Schneider which leans more towards the literary side of entertainment–a side rarely glimpsed within Hollywood.
Tribeca 2010: Meet Monica Velour
Posted by Ryan Sarver
The premise of Keith Bearden’s Meet Monica Velour is simple enough: Tobe (Dustin Ingram) is a lonely 17-year-old who lives with his grandpa (Brian Dennehy), and whose social awkwardness has driven him madly in love with favorite porn model Monica Velour (Kim Cattrall). Upon discovering that Monica’s scheduled for a series of shows in Nowheresville, Indiana, the young man sets off under the guise of visiting an interested buyer of his weinermobile in order to see her. Inevitably the two meet up, have an awkward semi-romance, and learn lessons about life and love. At least that’s what the director would like to happen. Unfortunately, every beat of this “comedy” is off, and what little plot exists feels derivative of Judd Apatow in every way possible. There are long conversations between the two about friends, family, and life that are meant to feel reflective but come across lifeless and insincere, and rather than endearing characters or meaningful relationships, we’re given a pathetic freak willing to drive his hot dog truck cross-country to meet the porn-star-idols he worships, and a washed-up skin-mag goddess who wants only to see her child again. You presume there will be a turnaround with Tobe—desperately want the boy to realize the harshness of Monica’s reality so he can move on and grow into a socially acceptable human being. Sadly, his arc feels pointless and unfulfilling—the boy starts this film inexcusably dense and socially inept, and that’s exactly how he ends it.
Tribeca 2010: Snowmen
Posted by Ryan Sarver
It’s been a long time since I saw a live-action, non-established IP children’s flick; while both Pixar and Dreamworks produce children’s films that entertain both kids and adults, the live-action department is populated almost entirely with the droppings of talking dogs, gerbils, and overzealous movie producers seeking to capitalize on an easy demographic. So, it was with a heavy heart that I walked into Robert Kirbyson’s Snowmen, a film that follows recovered cancer victim Billy Kirkfield’s (Billy Coleman) attempt to leave his mark on the world before dying. Despite its suprisingly mature subject matter, the film maintains a lighthearted, lovable appeal, largely due to the sincerity and skill of its child actors.
Tribeca 2010: My Own Love Song
Posted by Ryan Sarver
My favorite parts of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button were small moments—time spent listening to a friend’s stories late at night or reciting Shakespeare in the kitchen—that formed Ben’s relationships, crafting the tapestry of humanity the film punctuates with its closing character panorama. This seems the goal of Olivier Dahan’s new film, My Own Love Song, which follows crippled singer/songwriter Jane Wyatt (Renee Zellweger) and her schizophrenic friend Joey (Forest Whitaker) on a cross-country trip where they encounter several colorful characters. There is no conflict, there is no real plot established—quirky antics aside, little happens outside of the couple making new friends. Unfortunately, unlike Benjamin Button, which took the time to fully flesh-out the relationships between its characters, Love Song tosses people in and out willy-nilly with little payoff, and since this was the film’s ultimate focus, leaves its audience wondering what the point was.
Within its first ten minutes, Love Song exposes its characters’ primary flaws; Jane gave up on life after an accident took her husband’s life, paralyzed her from the waist down, and drove her child into the arms of foster parents, and Joey is a schizophrenic that lies in peoples’ yards staring at imaginary jellyfish circling the moon. After being imprisoned for breaking into and wrecking Jane’s home, Joey escapes, breaks back into the house, cleans everything up, then convinces Jane to go on a cross-country fugitive tour with him. All of this happens so quickly and with such ease that its hardly believable, exposing the film’s reliance on quirky charm rather than legitimate concern for its characters’ safety; neither Joey or Jane are ever threatened by capture or legal prosecution. The entire setup is necessary to spur forth the characters’ growth, but after five minutes of journeying both the audience and on-screen characters have forgotten why they’re running or where they’re going.
This poster is the best thing about this film.
Tribeca 2010: Climate of Change
Posted by Ryan Sarver
Perhaps the most notable thing about Brian Hill’s Climate of Change is its inclusion of Tilda Swinton as narrator rather than longtime docu-voiceover Morgan Freeman; bumpering each investigative segment are lines of seussical poetry read by Swinton addressing man’s use of the environment—lines like:
The trees reach towards the sky,
Longing for rain
But must shoulder the burden
Of man’s heavy strain.
Sounds cute, huh? Imagine hearing ten of these “lyrics” wedged between people talking in very plain English about legitimate environmental concerns. Does this make you want to save the environment or laugh? This is the biggest failing of Hill’s documentary—like its entirity, no single story gets enough attention to merit personal investment or motivation, and the remaining mess feels over-written and over-directed.
Tribeca 2010: Open House
Posted by Matthew Starr
The plot summary on IMDB for Open House is written as follows,
"A couple on the verge of a nasty divorce attempt to sell their empty love nest and move on with their lives, separately. After a successful open house they are horrified to discover, days later, that a potential buyer didn't leave their home. While Alice is being held captive in the basement, the unannounced house guest moves in upstairs. She senses her capture is being kept a rebellious secret. She knows her way only way out if she can only get out alive."
Of course I had not read this before I ventured out to watch this movie at Tribeca. If I had read that dumbfounding last sentence earlier it might have saved me the pain of watching this movie.
Tribeca 2010: The Disappearance of Alice Creed
Posted by Matthew Starr
With "The Disappearance of Alice Creed" writer and director J Blakeson had the right idea for an edge of your seat thriller but ended up being just as disorganized and indecisive as the three characters in his film. The film’s plot is one seen often before. Two men, Vic (Eddie Marsan) and Danny (Martin Compston), kidnap a girl named Alice Creed (Gemma Arterton) and hold her for ransom. Alice fits the prototypical kidnapping criteria in that she has a rich father.
The three characters are the only people in the film and I found that to be a major weak point for a few reasons. For one a kidnapping film comes off as unrealistic without other players shown on screen such as the father and law enforcement officials. It felt to me like these three were shut off from the world. This leads to my second problem which is that I got quite bored of these characters. Once I had an understanding of their intentions whether real or feigned the film became bland and repetitive to me.