Movies

OSCAR BUZZIN': In case you missed the Best Picture noms

POSTED: Friday, February 25, 2011, 6:00 PM

Filed Under: Arts | Critical Mass | Movies | TV Arts Events

Sony Pictures

The Social Network

Miss some of this year's buzz-worthy films? Here's a quick guide to the Best Picture nominees so you can fake intelligent conversation at your Oscar party. The Social Network: The heartwarming tale of an everyday asshole who makes it big. When "Mark Zuckerberg," a character loosely based on Mark Zuckerberg, gets dumped, he does what any self-respecting man would do: makes a hugely successful website that changes the face of the Internet forever. Meanwhile, a pair of pesky twins insist that just because they invented the website, they should get some credit. Mark's mentor is the lead singer of *N Sync, who single-handedly brought down the music industry. Black Swan: A gag-a-minute comedy about the trials and tribulations of a goody-two-shoes dancer seeking her dark side. Among her pet peeves: a jealous mom, a conniving coworker, and the frustration of turning into a giant, water-dwelling bird. Then there's the former star stabbing herself in the face with a letter-opener. Top it all off with a hilarious blooper reel, and you've got a shoo-in for Best Picture.

raindance.org

The Kids Are All Right

The Kids Are All Right: This film tells the story of a lesbian who falls for her children's sperm donorbut trouble arrives when she realizes she's already married to someone else. Fortunately, everyone has similar taste in music, so everything turns out okay. Inception: Briefly considered the "best movie of all time" by some people, who turned out to be wrong, this deeply humanistic film explores one of life's great questions: what if, when you sleep, Leonardo DiCaprio sticks a needle in your arm, enters your dream, and fights people for no clear reason? Based on extensive sleep research, this is a movie so complex and richly detailed you need to see it twiceso it's probably better just to skip it. 127 Hours: A guy gets stuck under a rock and there's only one way out. You do the figuring. The Fighter: In his latest adventure, Batman teams up with Marky Mark for a thrill ride through Boston. It's basically the same movie as The King's Speech, except it's about a boxer learning to fight instead of a king learning to talk. After his infamous on-set rant, Christian Bale attempts to redeem himself in our hearts by playing a violent crack addict. True Grit: The requisite Coen brothers nominee, this film tells the story of a 14-year-old girl (Jeff Bridges) and her quest to get revenge on the man who killed her father. Along the way, she learns the true meaning of grit.

disney

Toy Story 3

Toy Story 3: The plot, in short: A plastic cowboy and a bilingual astronaut find themselves in trouble when their human accidentally abandons them. Thanks to Pixar, I am convinced that all objects, living or not, not only have feelings but are also remarkably witty. For that reason, I will never throw anything out again: that candy wrapper might miss me! That used tissue might have close friends! Winter's Bone: The three people who saw this movie adored it, especially the part about Winter, and also his or her bone. The King's Speech: A true story of triumph over adversity, as King George VI conquers a speech impediment to bring hope to the hearts of Britonsand moviegoerseverywhere. Don't worry too much about this movie, because there's no way it will win any awards.

Posted by Matt Cantor @ 6:00 PM Permalink | Post a comment

DOC REVIEW: The Complaint Choir

POSTED: Thursday, February 17, 2011, 9:00 PM

Filed Under: Critical Mass | Movies

The Complaints Choir is a movement to compile gripes, grumbles and grievances and arrange them in a chorus. This is not a glorification of non-gratitude, but rather a philosophical and turns out a somewhat political demonstration which gets an assortment of different reactions as choirs are organized all around the world. The basic premise is that we don't process problems in a healthy way. We focus more on the problems and less on the improvements. Sometimes we keep this stuff bottled up and it manifests in psychological or physical distress. Other times, we complain too gratuitously and fall into less effective general attitudes, mistaking the relevance of a late train for that of the Stock Market crash. And indeed, part of the Complaint Choir's beauty is their juxtaposition of "I have a hangnail" with "I lost my job" woven into the fabric of the music to effectively illustrate the empirical values of different complaints made stylistically similar.

In the documentary, we see that the Complaints Choir doesn't always go smoothly. Singapore is one example where the government intervened, and you start to realize that the freedom to express our grievances is perhaps the freedom most heartily taken for granted by Western culture. But do we do use it to affect positive changes, or do we just keep the muckiness of our culture damp with a vague haze of discontent? The Complaint Choir was begot by Tellervo Kalleinen and Oliver Kochta-Kalleinen in Helsinki, Finland as a living pun (there's a Finnish phrase to describe lots of people complaining at once, "Valituskuoro," which literally translates to "chorus of complaints"). When it picked up notoriety in England, Complaint Choirs started sprouting up all around the world. We had one here in Philadel0phia in '08, organized by First Person Arts and Spector Projects. For more information, visit http://www.complaintschoir.org/

Posted by Ryan Carey @ 9:00 PM Permalink | Post a comment

MOVIE REVIEW: The Romantic

POSTED: Wednesday, February 16, 2011, 9:00 PM

Filed Under: Arts | Critical Mass | Movies | Video | Philly Artists Movie Review

TheRomanticMovie.com

A still from The Romantic.

"If this is a story, who's writing it?" asks the hero of The Romantic, an animated feature film released online this week. The answer: Philadelphia's Michael P. Heneghan, who made the movie without a budget over three years. The Romantic calls itself "a mythological horror about monsters & magic." It's an apt description. The beautifully-rendered film plays with themes from Greek and other mythology: gods as fallible as humans face dramas above while humans try to make sense of the world below. And when the two worlds collide, things become unpleasant for everyone.

Heneghan

Humans meddling in godly affairs, and gods meddling in humans' lives, provide much of The Romantic's twisty-turny plot. The film begins with Romance himself, a young man in search of lost love. But it's not the standard "she left me, I want her back" quest: Romance's concern is that he has stopped loving his girlfriend, and he wants to reignite his passion. Aided by a mysterious little man called Patience, who provides most of the film's humor, Romance visits a goddess. She can fix his plightbut to do so "ain't natural," she warns. Of course, being a tragic mythological hero, he goes ahead with the plan, to disastrous results which drive the bulk of the dark story. Don't expect a traditional Hollywood story arc: the plot here is more episodic and can at times be difficult to follow. Our hero's many encounters are unified, however, by his unending struggle to understand the cruel worldand whether we're better off writing our own life stories, or having them dictated by forces beyond our control. Heneghan and co.'s ultra-smooth animation is gorgeous and originalthough be prepared for some unflinching bloodshed. While there are echoes of Tim Burton, the creepy character design is unique in its sad eyes, giant hands, and skinny legs. The backgrounds, too, are notably unusual: trees, for example, are sometimes left as simply penciled-in sketches, adding a certain humanity to the scenes. Romance is voiced passionately and convincingly by Jason Salerno in a cast of able performers. One actor, Nathan Terry, also wrote the film's original score, whose sweet, atmospheric tunes offer a contrast to often-harrowing events onscreen without distracting from them. The result is an eerie, haunting film that's part myth, part fairy tale, and part fable. The Romantic was unveiled, appropriately, on Valentine's Day; it can be viewed for free here.

BRAIN

Posted 2011-02-17 13:19:43

I LAUGHED. I CRIED. I LAUGHED AGAIN. THEN I CRIED SOME MORE. THEN LAUGHED ONE LAST TIME. THEN SMILED.

Posted by Matt Cantor @ 9:00 PM Permalink | Post a comment

OSCAR NOMS: Would CP critics agree?

POSTED: Tuesday, January 25, 2011, 4:00 PM

Filed Under: Movies

Nominees for the 83rd annual Academy Awards — aka the Oscars — were announced this morning. No big surprises, but in case you haven't seen all 10 Best Pictures, check out what our esteemed critics had to say about them. According to their findings, Black Swan and The Social Network rank highest, though competition is steep.

BLACK SWAN >> [ A- ] Although it's set in the world of ballet, Darren Aronofsky's movie hits a pitch that would normally be called operatic. Natalie Portman is provisionally cast in her first lead, but she needs to prove she can dance both white and black swan in Swan Lake. Portman nails the glacial perfection of the first, but it takes bad girl Mila Kunis to get her in touch with her dark side. As Portman's transformation progresses, Aronofsky makes over her body, as well; she decomposes and renews in a manner worthy of a Cronenberg heroine. The trouble is, Portman's role too closely matches her own limitations as an actor. —Sam Adams THE FIGHTER >> [ B+ ] David O. Russell may not seem the most obvious choice to helm another underdog boxing story. But while the true story of "Irish" Micky Ward (Mark Wahlberg) has all the makings of a Rocky-style "triumph of the human spirit," Russell finds plenty of fodder for his more caustic imaginings in Ward's family. The most monumental obstacles Ward confronts come out of being born into a large Massachusetts clan seemingly intent on undercutting any chance of success in the name of a delusional family honor. Russell at times succumbs to a penchant for cheap caricature, indicative of the film's uneven tone, never deciding between black comedy or hardscrabble drama. —Shaun Brady INCEPTION >> [ B+ ] Christopher Nolan's Inception plunges us down three layers (or more) deep, into the realm of dreams and waking delusions; knowing whose mind — or minds — we're in at a given moment is the tricky part. Dom Cobb (Leonard DiCaprio) infiltrates minds for a living. He uses dreams as a gateway, conducting industrial espionage in the target's subconscious. ... Nolan handles the mechanics of his Russian-doll worlds expertly, and with far more clarity than the jumbled set-tos of The Dark Knight. But it's not clear after a single viewing whether Nolan has taken his own advice and put a single, simple idea at the center of his elaborate labyrinth. A candidate surfaces late in the game, but it feels like an afterthought, and very nearly a cheat. —S.A. THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT >> [ B+ ] If The Kids Are All Right has a fatal flaw, it's that Nic and Jules' marriage is almost too ordinary. Dramatists have been wrestling for centuries with the difficulty of turning the stuff of everyday life into something people will pause their everyday lives to watch. Lisa Cholodenko is so concerned with communicating that Nic and Jules are a married couple like any other — and that their offspring, per the title, will be no more nor less screwed up by their parents' shortcomings — that she doesn't really explain why we've landed on their house and not the next one over. There's truth in her depiction, but not much insight. —S.A. THE KING'S SPEECH >> [ B+ ] As the soon-to-be George VI, Colin Firth is a reluctant royal with a stutter that acts up around his domineering father. It grows bad enough for him to seek help from an offbeat Australian, Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush); Speech boils down to a series of confrontations between patient and therapist. Rush's flamboyance is tempered by Firth's muted sorrow, and his character's gradual opening gives Firth a chance to push past the boundaries of his own interiority. —S.A. 127 HOURS >> [ B+ ] Devout outdoorsman/loner Aron Ralston (James Franco) finds the sticky end of solitude when he's trapped at the bottom of a ravine, his right arm pinned by a boulder. Like a steroidal Into the Wild, the movie follows Aron to the logical end of his lone-wolf lifestyle, leaving him with nothing but his wits and the contents of his backpack. It may take a while to recover from the movie's stomach-turning climax, but that's only because Danny Boyle succeeds so thoroughly in getting under your skin. —S.A. THE SOCIAL NETWORK >> [ A- ] The Social Network watches the growth of Facebook from the inside, but ends up being less about one specific phenomenon than the minor tremors that ripple outward into world-altering quakes. Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) envisions Facebook as replicating "the entire social experience of college" online, and The Social Network posits that the Digital Age has become Revenge of the Nerds, writ large. Zuckerberg's chief nemeses are the Winkelvoss twins (Armie Hammer), tall, athletic, blond "gentlemen of Harvard" with flagpole postures — jocks caught short by the limits of their privilege. The reach of the allegedly egalitarian Internet has simply upended the social order, as easily as ignoring a friend request. —S.B. TOY STORY 3 >> [ B+ ] Essentially extending the loss-of-childhood montage from its predecessor to feature length, Toy Story 3 finds Woody the cowboy (voiced by Tom Hanks), galactic superhero Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen) and the rest of the gang abandoned by their once-faithful Andy, who is counting down the few days left before he goes to college. Although Andy means to put them in the attic, preserving the possibility of a fleeting return to childhood, the toys fear being left by the curb, so they dispatch themselves to the nearest day-care center. Here, it's the childish things that put themselves away. —S.A. TRUE GRIT >> [ B+ ] The Coen brothers' True Grit is uncharacteristically restrained, its images softened by the haze of frontier dust. Casting Jeff Bridges as Rooster Cogburn gives the character a slovenly air; when Mattie Ross (Hailee Steinfeld) first makes contact with him, it's through the wall of a privy. "The jakes is occupied" is his only response to her offer of cash for the corpse of her father's killer. Vengeance in True Grit is a dirty business — not an eye for an eye, but something more visceral, and inevitably less just. The Coens wrestle with moral issues, but they've rarely done so as nakedly as in True Grit, and it turns out that transparency doesn't suit them. There's beauty to True Grit, but not enough depth. —S.A. WINTER'S BONE >> [ B+ ] "We're all related, ain't we?" asks 17-year-old Ree (Jennifer Lawrence), who, no matter where she goes in her small though far-flung Ozarks community, finds a relative — by blood or by impulse. They cook meth, drink beer and grow old long before their time, while she dreams of enlisting in the military to support her family. When her dad is arrested and then goes missing, she's also in danger of losing their ramshackle house and 300 acres. Debra Granik's movie — winner of the Sundance Grand Jury Prize — makes for a complicated viewing experience, taut and rambling, bleak and hopeful. Even as she solves one mystery, Ree is left with a raft of unanswerable questions. —Cindy Fuchs Check out the full list of nominations, provided by oscars.org, after the jump.

Actor in a Leading Role

Javier Bardem in "Biutiful"
Jeff Bridges in "True Grit"
Jesse Eisenberg in "The Social Network"
Colin Firth in "The King's Speech"
James Franco in "127 Hours"

Actor in a Supporting Role

Christian Bale in "The Fighter"
John Hawkes in "Winter's Bone"
Jeremy Renner in "The Town"
Mark Ruffalo in "The Kids Are All Right"
Geoffrey Rush in "The King's Speech"

Actress in a Leading Role

Annette Bening in "The Kids Are All Right"
Nicole Kidman in "Rabbit Hole"
Jennifer Lawrence in "Winter's Bone"
Natalie Portman in "Black Swan"
Michelle Williams in "Blue Valentine"

Actress in a Supporting Role

Amy Adams in "The Fighter"
Helena Bonham Carter in "The King's Speech"
Melissa Leo in "The Fighter"
Hailee Steinfeld in "True Grit"
Jacki Weaver in "Animal Kingdom"

Animated Feature Film

"How to Train Your Dragon" Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois
"The Illusionist" Sylvain Chomet
"Toy Story 3" Lee Unkrich

Art Direction

"Alice in Wonderland" Production Design: Robert Stromberg; Set Decoration: Karen O'Hara
"Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1" Production Design: Stuart Craig; Set Decoration: Stephenie McMillan
"Inception" Production Design: Guy Hendrix Dyas; Set Decoration: Larry Dias and Doug Mowat
"The King's Speech" Production Design: Eve Stewart; Set Decoration: Judy Farr
"True Grit" Production Design: Jess Gonchor; Set Decoration: Nancy Haigh

Cinematography

"Black Swan" Matthew Libatique
"Inception" Wally Pfister
"The King's Speech" Danny Cohen
"The Social Network" Jeff Cronenweth
"True Grit" Roger Deakins

Costume Design

"Alice in Wonderland" Colleen Atwood
"I Am Love" Antonella Cannarozzi
"The King's Speech" Jenny Beavan
"The Tempest" Sandy Powell
"True Grit" Mary Zophres

Directing

"Black Swan" Darren Aronofsky
"The Fighter" David O. Russell
"The King's Speech" Tom Hooper
"The Social Network" David Fincher
"True Grit" Joel Coen and Ethan Coen

Documentary (Feature)

"Exit through the Gift Shop" Banksy and Jaimie D'Cruz
"Gasland" Josh Fox and Trish Adlesic
"Inside Job" Charles Ferguson and Audrey Marrs
"Restrepo" Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger
"Waste Land" Lucy Walker and Angus Aynsley

Documentary (Short Subject)

"Killing in the Name" Nominees to be determined
"Poster Girl" Nominees to be determined
"Strangers No More" Karen Goodman and Kirk Simon
"Sun Come Up" Jennifer Redfearn and Tim Metzger
"The Warriors of Qiugang" Ruby Yang and Thomas Lennon

Film Editing

"Black Swan" Andrew Weisblum
"The Fighter" Pamela Martin
"The King's Speech" Tariq Anwar
"127 Hours" Jon Harris
"The Social Network" Angus Wall and Kirk Baxter

Foreign Language Film

"Biutiful" Mexico
"Dogtooth" Greece
"In a Better World" Denmark
"Incendies" Canada
"Outside the Law (Hors-la-loi)" Algeria

Makeup

"Barney's Version" Adrien Morot
"The Way Back" Edouard F. Henriques, Gregory Funk and Yolanda Toussieng
"The Wolfman" Rick Baker and Dave Elsey

Music (Original Score)

"How to Train Your Dragon" John Powell
"Inception" Hans Zimmer
"The King's Speech" Alexandre Desplat
"127 Hours" A.R. Rahman
"The Social Network" Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross

Music (Original Song)

"Coming Home" from "Country Strong" Music and Lyric by Tom Douglas, Troy Verges and Hillary Lindsey
"I See the Light" from "Tangled" Music by Alan Menken Lyric by Glenn Slater
"If I Rise" from "127 Hours" Music by A.R. Rahman Lyric by Dido and Rollo Armstrong
"We Belong Together" from "Toy Story 3" Music and Lyric by Randy Newman

Best Picture

"Black Swan" Mike Medavoy, Brian Oliver and Scott Franklin, Producers
"The Fighter" David Hoberman, Todd Lieberman and Mark Wahlberg, Producers
"Inception" Emma Thomas and Christopher Nolan, Producers
"The Kids Are All Right" Gary Gilbert, Jeffrey Levy-Hinte and Celine Rattray, Producers
"The King's Speech" Iain Canning, Emile Sherman and Gareth Unwin, Producers
"127 Hours" Christian Colson, Danny Boyle and John Smithson, Producers
"The Social Network" Scott Rudin, Dana Brunetti, Michael De Luca and Ceán Chaffin, Producers
"Toy Story 3" Darla K. Anderson, Producer
"True Grit" Scott Rudin, Ethan Coen and Joel Coen, Producers
"Winter's Bone" Anne Rosellini and Alix Madigan-Yorkin, Producers

Short Film (Animated)

"Day & Night" Teddy Newton
"The Gruffalo" Jakob Schuh and Max Lang
"Let's Pollute" Geefwee Boedoe
"The Lost Thing" Shaun Tan and Andrew Ruhemann
"Madagascar, carnet de voyage (Madagascar, a Journey Diary)" Bastien Dubois

Short Film (Live Action)

"The Confession" Tanel Toom
"The Crush" Michael Creagh
"God of Love" Luke Matheny
"Na Wewe" Ivan Goldschmidt
"Wish 143" Ian Barnes and Samantha Waite

Sound Editing

"Inception" Richard King
"Toy Story 3" Tom Myers and Michael Silvers
"Tron: Legacy" Gwendolyn Yates Whittle and Addison Teague
"True Grit" Skip Lievsay and Craig Berkey
"Unstoppable" Mark P. Stoeckinger

Sound Mixing

"Inception" Lora Hirschberg, Gary A. Rizzo and Ed Novick
"The King's Speech" Paul Hamblin, Martin Jensen and John Midgley
"Salt" Jeffrey J. Haboush, Greg P. Russell, Scott Millan and William Sarokin
"The Social Network" Ren Klyce, David Parker, Michael Semanick and Mark Weingarten
"True Grit" Skip Lievsay, Craig Berkey, Greg Orloff and Peter F. Kurland

Visual Effects

"Alice in Wonderland" Ken Ralston, David Schaub, Carey Villegas and Sean Phillips
"Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1" Tim Burke, John Richardson, Christian Manz and Nicolas Aithadi
"Hereafter" Michael Owens, Bryan Grill, Stephan Trojanski and Joe Farrell
"Inception" Paul Franklin, Chris Corbould, Andrew Lockley and Peter Bebb
"Iron Man 2" Janek Sirrs, Ben Snow, Ged Wright and Daniel Sudick

Writing (Adapted Screenplay)

"127 Hours" Screenplay by Danny Boyle & Simon Beaufoy
"The Social Network" Screenplay by Aaron Sorkin
"Toy Story 3" Screenplay by Michael Arndt; Story by John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton and Lee Unkrich
"True Grit" Written for the screen by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen
"Winter's Bone" Adapted for the screen by Debra Granik & Anne Rosellini

Writing (Original Screenplay)

"Another Year" Written by Mike Leigh
"The Fighter" Screenplay by Scott Silver and Paul Tamasy & Eric Johnson; Story by Keith Dorrington & Paul Tamasy & Eric Johnson
"Inception" Written by Christopher Nolan
"The Kids Are All Right" Written by Lisa Cholodenko & Stuart Blumberg
"The King's Speech" Screenplay by David Seidler

Posted by Carolyn Huckabay @ 4:00 PM Permalink | Post a comment

DOUBLE FEATURE: Let's make a day of it!

POSTED: Monday, January 17, 2011, 2:00 PM

Filed Under: Movies

It's fun for the whole damn family at The Roxy right now.

photo by Patrick Rapa

Posted 2011-01-17 13:31:11

I saw "Triumph of the Will" was playing there and was trying to figure out if there was any special reason why?

Posted by Patrick Rapa @ 2:00 PM Permalink | Post a comment

Q&A with Kazuhiro Soda

POSTED: Thursday, January 6, 2011, 5:00 PM

Filed Under: Events | Interview | Movies screening

Kazuhiro Soda

Still from Mental

As mentioned in this week's Agenda section, Japanese documentary filmmaker Kazuhiro Soda will be at the International House (3701 Chestnut St.) to screen his documentaries Campaign on Mon., Jan. 10 at 7 p.m., and Mental on Tues., Jan. 11 at 7:30 p.m. You can also catch him at Scribe Video Center (4212 Chestnut St.) on Tue., Jan. 11 at 5 p.m. leading a "Master Class" workshop. But first, we caught up with him for a little Q&A action. Critical Mass: The first film you're going to screen in Philly will be Campaign. What can you tell us about it? Kazuhiro Soda: It's an observational style feature documentary I made in 2007 about an election campaign, which won the Peabody award in 2008. A friend of mine ran for office in Kawasaki city, a suburb of Tokyo. He didn't have any experience in politics, and he didn't have much money. He was a merchant who made a living selling stamps and coins. He was backed by the powerful LDP (the Liberal Democratic Party) in Japan. How can he win the race without any experiences? He had no money and didn't know anybody in the town, but we'll see how he fared. CM: What can you tell us about Mental?

Kazuhiro Soda

KS: It's a similarly styled observational feature length documentary, about small mental clinic in Okayama Japan. I observed patients and caregivers, staff and doctors in the clinic. I tried to observe the microcosm. It questions the boundary between the mentally ill and healthy people. If you closely look at them, the more you observe, it becomes more questionable the differences between the healthy and the ill. CM: How did you get interested in that topic? KS: I got interested in the subject because, I have experience in visiting a mental clinic at age 20. I was working too hard, I was diagnosed with burnout syndrome. It's very common among Japanese businessmen. You work too hard, you get burned out. I recovered quickly, but the doc told me I could get ill at any time. I was working on this project for a long time in Japan, a lot of colleagues of mine were ill or going to the mental clinic regularly. Some people committed suicide. I felt like this whole country was in this mentally ill state, like an epidemic. CM: What kind of reaction did Mental get? KS: A lot of people came up to me and said things like, "I used to have the same kind of issue" or "my mother is ill" or "my best friend is ill". Everybody is somehow touched by this, but it's kind of taboo. I wanted to lift the taboo. The world of mental illness is kind of covered by this invisible curtain. I wanted to lift the invisible curtain by aiming the camera. This film won many awards, one of which was the Best Documentary Award (PIFF Mecenat Award) at the Pusan International Film festival in South Korea. This is the biggest film festival in Asia. It also won best documentary at the Dubai film festival, and the Hong Kong film festival. At the Miami International Film Festival, it received Special Jury Mention (for the courage of subject matter). CM: How did you end up planning a screening in Philly. KS: I live in New York, and I met the director of the Scribe Media center at the Robert Flaherty Film Seminar. I was one of the filmmakers who was on that seminar previously. He saw my work over there and he wanted to invite me. CM: What can we expect at your lecture? KS: During the class, I'll talk about my observational method of documentary film-making. This style is directly inspired by direct cinema tradition--a style in documentary filmmaking from the 60's--as well as masters like Frederick Wiseman. When the portable 16mm cameras became available, film-makers took them too the street and started making documentaries. I developed my observational film-making method by watching these films. It's not so popular now, especially in America. Michael More style documentaries are much more popular. They have graphics, music and interviews. Direct cinema doesn't use any music, graphics or interviews; it quietly observes what's going on in front of the camera. It's like what people might call the fly on the wall type of approach.

Kazuhiro Soda

Still from Campaign

One of the things I practice is I don't do any research before making films, I don't even write any synopsis before I shoot. Because, if I do any research or meetings beforehand, I'm kind of locked in to my preconception. I usually just go to the scene with my camera and start shooting spontaneously, and I shoot whatever interests me. At that point I don't have any scene in my mind. I try to observe what's going on in front of me. I try to discover something new. Michael Moore always has a script, they always know what they want to say. They know what they want to accomplish before they make the film. For me, it's too boring because if you know what the film is all about before you film, then you don't discover anything--or, it's harder to discover anything. For me this observation method is a way to make myself open to many different accidents and possibilities. Life is full of accidents and full of possibilities, if you're open. Rather than being locked up to my original idea, I want myself to be open to the world and learn something. That's the key point to my style. I'll talk about my method and philosophy, and why I took particular choices. I'll also explain in detail how I made the films, and discuss the behind the scenes. CM: In regards to burnout syndrome, which you mentioned as being common in Japan, do you feel there is a vast philosophical difference between the work ethic of the West and the work ethic of the East? KS: What you are expected at the work place is different between Japanese society and American society. In Japan, no matter what you have, you have to do certain work in a certain way. For example, you have to make a 2 hour documentary and you have one million dollars budget. And you are supposed to make this documentary, but your budget gets cut to ten thousand dollars. In Japan you are still expected to deliver the same kind of film. I'm exaggerating but there is some sense like that. In America, it's more like everybody works according to the budget, nobody expects you to deliver the same things with different budget. *laughs* I don't think it's genetics, because Japanese Americans who grow up here, they don't share the same work ethic as Japanese living in Japan, I think it's cultural, just part of the tradition...

Harold A. Maio

Posted 2011-01-07 08:31:23

the boundary between the mentally ill and healthy people. If you closely look at them, the more you observe, it becomes more questionable the differences between the healthy and the ill.
The appearance of this "the" ought be a red flag to anyone, sadly it is not. "The" Jews, "the" Blacks, over time many groups have been subjected to it, and a great many of us accepted it. I am not sure why it is such a popular metaphor, but reducing groups to an abstraction seem to entertain us.

The reality behind each is the same. Mental illnesses do not discriminate, people with them are as likely highly successful as not, earn in the millions, hold high office, professional, blue and white collar jobs. We are first people, and then ill, Black, Jewish, whatever. 

Harold A. Maio, retired Mental Health Editor
khmaio@earthlink.net

Ryan Carey

Posted 2011-01-07 12:31:21

Harold, Kazuhiro Soda used "the mentally ill" the same way he would have used "the young" or "the wealthy" or "the syntax sticklers". It should be clear from reading the complete article (or even the rest of the sentence) that he does not descriminate against the ill (i.e. he refers to healthy people as "the healthy").

However, I can appreciate your empathy towards mentally ill people, and if you attend the screening, I think you'll find that Kazuhiro Soda does as well.

Harold A. Maio

Posted 2011-01-07 22:09:14

"The" healthy and "the" young differ from "the" mentally ill, as they differ from "the" Blacks. It is an interesting form, it can be employed  poetically, "the" gifted, and can be entirely the opposite. 

We are presently fascinated with the form, "the" mentally ill, and a few others, "the" homeless, "the" disabled among them.  They delimit our understanding.  

In my youth I fully appreciated "the" Blacks, their limits were carefully desribed for me. I believed those limits, only to discover culture had lied to me. 

I have not seen the film, will likely not get the opportunity, but I hope it includes a professor teaching German. Illness intrudes on our lives to various degrees, from little to consuming. It does not consume most of us. I hope the film shows that range.

Harold

Marce L.

Posted 2011-01-10 07:45:14

I had the opportunity to watch K. Soda's documentary and read some interviews about it.
In my opinion this kind of exchange is an interesting starting point to discuss about "the conception of mental illness" in the context of "the concept of culture ."

Harold refers to the concept of "sub-cultures" when he talks about "the black culture", "the youth culture" ... on his words: "as a way to discover how culture (or these cultural categories) had lied " to him .
From his point of view these categorizations are a risky way to divide, discriminate and control different expressions of the culture... and he adds "They delimit our understanding. "

The concept of "subculture" is an operational concept in the field of Anthropology for the purposes of the study of "inter cultural exchange" (in Spanish language "interculturalismo " ).
This concept allows to analyze how these subcultures relate one to the other to confront or negotiate their interests.

Other examples of these categorizations are: "gender culture", "original cultures ", "the culture of cybernauts" ... etc.
To be part of a subculture, members of the same should be aware of it, have a sense of belonging.

From this theoretical starting point... can we consider that " THE mentally ill " is a sub culture ? are there any previous studies in this regard? I don't consider this category as possible.

As Harold writes "Mental illness" does not discriminate social classes or ethnic groups.
From the psychopathology field, psychic structures are universal, that means, cultures do not discriminate pathologies.

As social anthropologist I would like to add that the treatment of these diseases or their denial are culturally determined.
From this point of view mental illness are "ALSO" culturally defined not only psychologically determined.

we have to admit that we are "locked" by our cultural point of view.

Kazuhiro Soda describes in his documentary how mental illnesses are treated at an mental institution in Japan.
His view is extremely respectful in relation to the mentally ill as well as mental illness, and he complains about the economic insecurity faced by mental institutions, which depends on government subsidies, (allowing to discuss about a "sort of institutionalized discrimination")

I am sure that if Harold has the opportunity to watch this documentary he will be fascinated by Soda 's work.

Marcela L.

Posted by Ryan Carey @ 5:00 PM Permalink | Post a comment

IN MEMORIAM: Pete Postlethwaite, 1946-2011

POSTED: Monday, January 3, 2011, 3:45 PM

Filed Under: In Memoriam | Movies

Postlethwaite in The Town

Just heard via Film Junk that British actor Pete Postlethwaite died yesterday due to complications from a long battle with cancer. He was 64. According to FJ, Postlethwaite didn't let his treatments slow him down from working:

[Postlethwaite] put in some memorable performances this year in The Town, Inception and Clash of the Titans. Spielberg supposedly referred to him as the "best actor in the world" at one point after working with him on The Lost World: Jurassic Park and Amistad. ... He still has one more upcoming role in a movie called Killing Bono that is still to be released in 2011.

Personally, I remember him best as Father Laurence in Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet. Here's a clip, to take you back to 1996 for a minute.

Posted by Carolyn Huckabay @ 3:45 PM Permalink | Post a comment

TRAILER FRIDAY: Hanna: She will seriously eff you up

POSTED: Friday, December 24, 2010, 4:00 PM

Filed Under: Movies trailer!

Merry Christmas Eve, celebrators of Christian holidays! On this momentous day-before-the-big-day, we'd like to take a second from your holiday-glee fest to bring you the trailer for Hanna, set to come out in Philly on April 8, 2011. Saoirse Ronan (The Lovely Bones), in the title role, plays a Jungle Book-meets-Salt-style mini-warrior who throws the feds (Cate Blanchett!) off her dad's (Eric Bana!) trail by acting all sweet and innocent and then killing the shit out of everybody. Behold:

Now go drink some egg nog.

Brion

Posted 2010-12-24 11:39:16

Original Score by The Chemical Brothers!

Posted by Carolyn Huckabay @ 4:00 PM Permalink | Post a comment

Q&A with ANDREW JARECKI: "It's more like sleepwalking than a plan"

POSTED: Friday, December 17, 2010, 6:30 PM

Filed Under: Interview | Movies

Andrew Jarecki, director/writer/producer of All Good Things

Writer/director/producer Andrew Jarecki's All Good Things provides an absorbing theory about the Robert Durst cases — the 1982 disappearance of his wife, and two subsequent deaths 20 years later. For All Good Things, the names have been changed — Durst becomes Robert Marks here — to protect the possibly guilty. After helming the spellbinding documentary Capturing the Friedmans and producing Catfish this summer, Jarecki makes his first foray into fiction film with All Good Things (reviewed here). We spoke with the City Paper about the recurring themes of his work — true crime and family. City Paper: What fascinates you about true crime, particularly stories where guilt is suspected by never quite proven? Andrew Jarecki: I never ever thought, I'm interested in a particular genre. It's more that I hear an interesting story, and I take more of an interest in it. As I get closer to it, I start to realize it's similar to other things that I've done. I always think that I stumble into that situation and notice connections. But it's more like sleepwalking than a plan. I do try to listen to my intuition about things. If something interests me, I keep asking questions about it. I like things that are hidden. I think that when people hide things they're usually showing much more of themselves in the hiding than if they never hidden the thing to begin with. CP: Do you identify with the people/characters/families you present on screen? AJ: My family is unbelievably complicated, and I guess that's what probably makes them like all families. CP: How is your family complicated? AJ: They are a bundle of fantastic contradictions. A lot of my family members have alternative lifestyles and ways they do things and they criticize other family members who have other alternative lifestyles that are just as weird. The good thing about my family — and maybe it's liberating — is that my father is very good about talking about these things. There's nothing he won't discuss; he doesn't get offended. Our family doesn't mind a certain kind of self-analysis, so I became an in-house therapist for a lot of people that are in my life. I guess I look at families from that perspective. How families operate interest me, and how people set responsibilities. What do we owe each other for being born in the same house? I know brothers and sisters who hate each other — it's like the proximity of it that makes them go after each other. I love all the dividing lines and society rules. You're not supposed to have sex with your relatives, but millions of Americans do it. You're supposed to honor your brother and sister, but millions of Americans talk trash behind their back. These are rules we ignore. CP: All Good Things and Capturing the Friedmans are both, in their way, about sins of the father. You have two young sons. What messages are you passing along to them in your work? AJ: I sometimes think when I'm with my kids: What are the things I'm doing now that they will be made at me for later, and how do I avoid them? I know that my father did things when I was growing up — he created some impediments for me. They were his job to create, part of the trials and tribulations you have growing up so you get tough and adaptable. Being with my dad is like swinging with two bats. Sometimes he makes things difficult, or your can understand that's what a father will do. Like animals do — they fight internally so the young bucks become stronger and avoid trouble. In this film, the father behaves less like a father. The narcissism of this very powerful man ... his advice is meant to be taken as instruction. He doesn't think he is doing anything destructive.

CP: Katie (Kirsten Dunst) has a line in All Good Things where she says, "I've never been closer to anyone, but I don't know you at all." This could be used as the key to all of your films — where the characters think they know someone but don't have a clue. Why is that a running theme through your work? AJ: That's issue of identity is really important to me — that there is still privacy in an individual. If you're with someone and sleeping with them and you're having children—or not—with them, you are still independent and have secrets. I use that when I'm directing. I often will make an adjustment in a scene by going to one actor, and making an adjustment, and not go to the other at all. I think that that can have a really interesting impact. You're telling a secret to one actor, and it becomes like that game where one person knows something and the other has to guess. That's really how human beings operate with each other. If you try to do a business deal, or want to buy a house — almost every human interaction, whether it's a love relationship or a business deal — and in the Marks family, they are not totally unrelated — you don't have all the information. CP: How much do you think class was a factor in what transpired? AJ: I think that the fact that the case was never understood, analyzed or solved has a lot to do with the privilege of class. I think that was the case back in 1982 when [Katie] disappeared. When you have an enormously wealthy or powerful suspect or later defendant, there is a kind of conspiracy without a conspiracy. If you can't be sure to get a conviction on a regular person, but you think that there's a good chance that they killed someone, you send them through the machine. Because you think there is a pretty good chance to get a circumstantial conviction and send the person to jail. If you only have circumstantial evidence, let's say you don't have a body — and they didn't — I think there is often the phone call that comes from the mayor's office to the chief of police that says, "I would never tell you not to pursue a murder suspect, if you feel like this guy killed his wife, I say hang 'em high, but if you're not sure you can get a conviction, we'd be doing a lot of damage here to a very important constituent. I'd never tell you not to do the work, but be sure you're right." But if you have a murder with no body, you're never sure you're right. Who's going to take that challenge? In Galveston, the judge sees that the defendant is a person of unlimited resources. The judge is going to spend a lot of time protecting the record so they can't get overturned. When you are in Galveston and get a case with a high profile, you know for sure there's going to be an appeal, you let them do almost anything they want in court — like put the witness on the stand for two days and talk about tons of things that have nothing to do with the case. A poor defendant would never have that opportunity. CP: Can you comment on the Durst lawsuit? The family wanted the film stopped... AJ: Robert is a completely different animal from his family. His family is adamantly opposed to the film because the film doesn't work for their purposes, but he is adamantly opposed to his family. It was never his intention to sue us. He just wanted to see what he thought about the film for his own purposes. The Durst family wanting to sue us was a whole different thing, because they wanted to prevent us from shooting the movie. I don't think they were successful, but they certainly worked hard to keep the movie out of the public eye. It worked for a period of time.

Posted by Gary M. Kramer @ 6:30 PM Permalink | Post a comment

Critical Mass

POSTED: Tuesday, December 14, 2010, 12:00 PM

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Q&A with SHARI SOLANIS: "The goal isn't pornography"
What we're trying to do this weekend
SEXY TIME Q&A: I've never had an orgasm during sex with a man — and I'm 30!
Q&A with Tony Goldwyn: "Life is gray, and relationships are, too"
CONCERT REVIEW: Primus (3D & quadraphonic sound) @ The Tower 10/17
ICE CUBE: In Memoriam: Joe Tartaglia
NOW SEE THIS: Transit cop arrests marijuana activist for alleged disorderly conduct.
Coming soon to Philly: Two cockamamie movie promotion schemes
ICEPACK ILLUSTRATED: The Archbishop meets the Geator, the Mayor goes suit shopping, Le Bec Fin fin.
NOW SEE THIS: Tim and Eric direct Terry Crews for Old Spice

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Featuring everything from event roundups to concert reviews and sex talk, City Paper's Critical Mass is a space for off-the-wall coverage of Philly's A&E scene.

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