Abe (Jordan Gelber) is a resolutely average man whose life has been unstarling and consistent. Pushing 40, he still works at his father’s company, collects action figures, and lives in his parents’ house. When he meets a pretty, intriguing woman at a wedding, he acts as you would expect a man in arrested development would; he clearly does not have a clue. However, that is where the ordinary ends because once he proposes to Miranda (Selma Blair), the woman from the wedding whom he hardly knows, Todd Solondz’s latest feature, DARK HORSE, becomes something unexpected, biting, an breathtakingly unique.
Transgressive in the truest sense of the word, DARK HORSE pushes the boundaries of “shlubby guy comedies” almost as if it was a reaction to Apatow/Seth Rogen films which are also absurdist, just in a completely different fashion. The darkly-skewed comedy of DARK HORSE, for example, is more unsettling than uproarious in that it is difficult to know exactly when to laugh. However, it is those elements of humor that make the film’s borderline nihilistic themes much easier to swallow.
DARK HORSE’s title could not be more appropriate as the film consistently takes what is ordinary and spins it on its head to make it idiosyncratic, amusing, and unexpected. Abe’s parents, played by legendary actors Christopher Walken and Mia Farrow are playing “types”: the uptight, disapproving, and disappointed father and the batty, smothering, well-intentioned mother. Though these are familiar characters and very familiar actors, they play their roles in a way that emphasizes the strangeness of the film, like a song that is slightly off-key, to an enormously captivating effect. The same can be said of every aspect of the production including the erie, but bright lighting, or the wardrobe choices which are in some ways normal, yet simultaneously cartoonish. The result is a film that is challenging and a-typical while drawing on the conventional.
This particular brand of dark-humor is what one should expect from Solondz, who is an auteur of subverted expectations. Rather than being strangely familiar, his films are familiarly strange. However, the genuine comedy, sadness, and affection that is featured the film is what makes DARK HORSE sincere, and therefore more affecting than a film that just set out to be weird.
Todd Solondz’s new film DARK HORSE tells the story of Abe (Jordan Gelber), a 30-something year old man still living with his parents. Abe will be a familiar character to fans of Solondz, as he is stuck in life searching for something better than what he has. Between Abe’s massive collection of toys (and repeated trips to toy stores), sunshine yellow Hummer, lack of a college degree, and a job working at his father’s real estate company, Abe embodies a lifestyle that can only be described as laughable.
Solondz introduces us to Abe at a wedding (a quite ironic setting given Abe’s difficulties with relationships) where we also meet Miranda (Selma Blair), an unhappy woman in her thirties who is completely uninterested in her date with Abe. After Abe’s failed attempts at getting an actual second date with Miranda, the two end up spending an evening sitting on the porch where Abe decides to spontaneously propose. Deciding to propose to a woman he just met is the first of many decisions Abe makes without thinking through the end result, and it forces Abe to question himself, as well as his future, and how his life will be different having to interact with someone other than his co-workers or parents.
Although Abe’s story focuses on relationships and the decisions he makes, Solondz is able to switch back and forth between comedy and rather serious questions about human nature and why social norms exist. Solondz calls attention to this motif through the character Mahmoud (Aasif Mandvi), Miranda’s ex. Mahmoud is just as far away from the norm as Abe is, but falls on the opposite side of the spectrum. While Abe embodies every negative quality of an American deadbeat (dropping out of college, living at home, etc.), Mahmoud is very worldly, educated, and confident. It is quite obvious that Miranda was happier with Mahmoud than she is with Abe, which reminds the viewer of one of the many questions Solondz asks throughout the film: Why do we do what is easy, instead of what makes us happiest?
As Abe’s relationship with Miranda develops, it is easy to look down on Abe and laugh at his shortcomings, but Abe’s goal never changes. Despite all of his flaws, Abe stays true to himself. He ignores what society tells him he should do so that he can do what he believes will make him happy. That spontaneous attempt at being happy, despite whether or not it is “socially acceptable,” is what makes Abe more successful than all of us, and if we can laugh at Abe for his abnormal lifestyle, we should all be laughing at ourselves for not trying to be as happy as we can possibly be.
The most talked-about film to come out of Sundance this year, BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD has been winning the praise of critics such as Amy Taubin of Artforum who said “BEASTS is an ecological fairy tale, both cautionary and inspiring.” Though it is difficult to avoid the hype surrounding this film in the outside world, when inside the theater, it all slips away and suddenly you are immersed in the intoxicating scenery and character of the Bathtub, the fictionalized community in the bayou of New Orleans where the film is set. Equally captivating are the performances by the multitude of non-actors who are from the surrounding area, especially Quvenzhané Wallis (Hushpuppy), and Dwight Henry (Wink).
BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD is told from the point of view of Hushpuppy, a precocious 6-year-old girl who describes her environment in poetic, Malick-esque voice-over. Her ailing father, Wink, is the leader of their poor, but not downtrodden, community and the sole caregiver for Hushpuppy since her mother “swam away.” When a Katrina-like storm threatens the Bathtub, Wink springs into action, determined to protect his home and the homes of his neighbors. Hushpuppy, who experiences the Bathtub as a place that is full of magic and humming with life, perceives the natural threat of the storm and the man-made threat of the evacuators as a stampede of auroch’s, ice-age beasts set free from melting glaciers, coming to destroy her home until they are stopped.
Utilizing the powerful and unforgettable images of post-Katrina New Orleans, BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD weaves recent disaster with folklore that speaks to the heart of Americana, where the feeling that anything is possible is prevalent even when reality contradicts it. BEASTS is not a didactic film about the facts of natural disaster and the massive human toll, nor is it attempting to comment on political reactions. (If anything, this film offers possibility of being examined from every point of view on the political spectrum, presenting libertarian rugged individualism in harmony with liberal ideas of diversity, community, and the humanity of the poor). Rather, BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD is an interpretation of the emotional experience of an apocalyptic change through the eyes of a small child.
Made by a collective of people living in New Orleans, directed by Benh Zeitlin, and starring people who live in the community, BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD is grassroots in aesthetics, theme and production. It is a true American independent film and should not be missed.
As a young filmmaker, I have been dismayed and disillusioned to observe the mainstream and independent markets growing increasingly homogenous over the last decade. Both arenas have grown stagnant, suffocating on their own proven formulas. Perhaps this is simply indicative of the ebb and flow of tastes and technologies that direct the evolution of cinema, but it can certainly leave a film enthusiast feeling jaded. Sometimes, though, there is a game changer, a paradigm shift, the 100th monkey, the final straw. Every so often a film comes out that clears away all the detritus and residual plaque of junk food entertainment. It is like falling in love again: a familiar high in a brand new variation. It smacks you in the face and says “this is how it should be,” and you know it’s right.
“Beasts of the Southern Wild” is that kind of movie. To its core, it is a revelation in filmmaking. Produced on a miniscule budget by a tiny, close-knit crew of long time friends and collaborators, “Beasts” is bursting with visual splendor, charisma, and emotion. Its very fiber challenges the commonplace excess of mainstream filmmaking, displaying the transcendent quality of Cinema that is all too often squashed by the limitations of the studio system. This is salt of the earth filmmaking, a modern day folktale rendered by true craftsmen.
I was able to speak with director Benh Zeitlin about his unique process with COURT 13, the independent production company he co-founded several years ago. When he talks about making “Beasts,” his first feature film, he frequently says “we” when other directors would say “I.” This word choice speaks volumes about the creative community produced by their immersive approach, and the organic genius it creates.
“That sort of fluidity,” he says, “that’s our paintbrush. That’s everything about how we make films. We had this privilege to really allow a lot of people’s creativity to get on screen, which in a traditional process doesn’t really happen. You see the creative energy get kinda sucked out of people by the hierarchy of the method. I’m definitely not interested in making movies any other way. It’s hard to even separate out, because everybody I know works on the films. Like, my family works on the films. The way that we make the films is almost a lifestyle. And it’s a great lifestyle.”
The rewards of this personal involvement come through most explicitly in the performances. “Beasts” feels organic and real, at times even like a documentary. This can be attributed in large part to Zeitlin’s exceptional direction of a cast comprised entirely of non-professional actors – each of whom turn out award-worthy performances. “I think that the big difference working with non-actors than actors” Zeitlin says, “is that actors have a very private way of generating emotion. They all have their own method to channel feeling into a performance that you don’t want to interfere with as a director, you want to let them use their own tools. The difference with a non-professional actor is that you are inventing those tools together. So, it’s much more… It’s just much more personal.”
Zeitlin cites Emir Kusturica and John Cassavetes as influences in his casting and directing technique. “Watching those movies you have this affection for not just the character on the screen, but the person playing that character. You sense so viscerally their life outside the movie. Whether that’s accurate or not, the type of performance that is and the type of people that are cast in like ‘Underground’ and ‘Black Cat White Cat’ give you this joy of entering a community that you want to be a part of- or I want to be a part of! It’s like the party that you want to go to.”
“Beasts’” utopian party comes in the form of a fictional bayou village in southern Louisiana called “The Bathtub.” Although the lifestyle doesn’t exhibit the material characteristics typical of western affluence, the people there live a rich life. There is no need for money in The Bathtub because everyone lives off the bounty of the land. Secluded from industrial society, they take advantage of the ecological richness of their environment. But for every few thousand decadent crab feasts, the bill comes in the form of a massive hurricane. Despite this constant threat, the people of The Bathtub live in a harmonious state with nature, and are at peace with its price. In fact, it seems to bring them closer together. Everyday is a celebration in The Bathtub, because tomorrow it might be underwater.
“The Bathtub is a place with no divisive ideology whatsoever,” Zeitlin explains. “It’s this kind of imagined utopia of what it would be like to have a place where there aren’t class issues, there aren’t religious issues, old and young people aren’t divided, you know, races are not divided. It’s an imagination of pure unity.” The metaphor never comes off as overtly political or preachy, which can be largely accredited to the story being told through the inherently non-political point of view of six-year-old protagonist Hushpuppy. We experience her world through her eyes and her thoughts, which brings “Beasts” to life with the unique magic of child-reality. But her reality in The Bathtub is anything but utopian in the traditional sense. She is treated like an adult, and expected to act like one in a variety of challenging circumstances. Her ailing father Wink teaches her to fend for herself, disguising his own pain and sadness with tough love roughness. Never too rough, though, “Beasts” occupies a refreshing medium that displays neither the sanitized vision of Hollywood nor the brutal, shock effect tendencies of certain independent camps.
Indeed, this recipe makes for a wonderfully accessible and appealing film – for my money, one of the best coming of age stories ever committed to celluloid. Apparently, I’m not the only one who thinks so: after it’s Sundance premier, Fox Searchlight purchased the film. Yes, that Fox Searchlight. Though they gave the filmmakers no upfront guarantee, the distribution will certainly get “Beasts” into more than a few mainstream theaters. Hopefully, this will be indicative of a large-scale shift in the kind of films that are picked up by traditional distributors. But if it’s not, at least the Independent scene has a brilliant new auteur.
Despite his “mainstream success,” Zeitlin is resolute to keep making films his own way. At the end of our conversation, I asked Benh what advice he had for a first-time director. He laughed and said, “Oh man, I don’t know. I always hesitate to give advice in any form because we do a lot of crazy stuff. But, I think it’s important to not get too caught up in what people are going to think of your film while you are making it. I always think that the best thing you can make is the thing that emerges the most naturally out of yourself. You don’t want to get bogged down in what type of film is going to get financed or what type of film is going to get into festivals or anything like that. Because, you know, my experience with [Beasts] is that the world is really looking for something different, and they don’t know what they’re looking for. They’re looking to see something that emerges from somebody in an honest way.”
After the announcement that Woody Allen’s next film will be located in San Francisco and New York, it looks like we might be seeing the end of his European sojourn in TO ROME WITH LOVE. And what a wonderful trip it has been, filled with beautifully shot echoes of earlier Allen films. We’ve revisited CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS’ questions of guilt and morality in MATCH POINT, and we’ve luxuriated in RADIO DAYS-esque nostalgia in last year’s surprise hit MIDNIGHT IN PARIS. Now, as Allen makes the requisite stop in Italy for TO ROME WITH LOVE, we find the filmmaker returning to a whole litany of past ideas through four distinct stories, each taking place in a breathtakingly gorgeous Roman setting.
If you recoil at the thought of another multiple storyline film, featuring an overwhelming number of characters and plotlines that slowly converge to an inevitable climax, have no fear. With the exception of a few minor connections, Allen keeps his stories separate, using the many narratives instead to create variations on a theme. What we have, then, are four vignettes that present characters with opportunities to be something that they’re not. When each character embraces these opportunities, hilarity ensues in what is one of Allen’s lightest, breeziest films.
This is not to say that it isn’t also one of his most thoughtful films. As an ardent fan of Woody Allen’s work, I have always argued, even during some of his rougher patches, that the ideas have always been there. Allen’s films all seem to emerge, not from some character or plot device, but from something he wants to get off of his chest. In this latest film, Allen has something to say about celebrity, fidelity, and ambition, and he says it all with wit and poignancy.
With an Italian traffic cop directing our gaze, we look down one street and see Roberto Benigni as a man who suddenly becomes one of the celebrities he and his wife always obsess over in the tabloids and the evening news. After climbing over a few rows worth of Hollywood royalty to accept his Oscar, Benigni has been mostly written off in this country. But I would argue that his appearance in this film proves to be some of the smartest casting of Allen’s career, giving Benigni a chance to return to the Buster Keaton-esque performance style that won him the Oscar and reveals him to be one of the more talented comic actors working today.
Look down another street and you’ll find Woody Allen himself as a retired opera director who, upon being introduced to the parents of his daughter’s Italian fiancé, discovers that the father is a talented opera singer. Unfortunately, this undiscovered voice only seems to work when the man is singing in the shower. How Allen works around this minor obstacle is easily the film’s funniest ongoing gag.
Add to these stories two depictions of young love endangered by ill-fated lusts and infidelities, populated by promising young actors like Jesse Eisenberg, Greta Gerwig, and Ellen Page, and you have a movie chock full of richly drawn characters and delightfully funny situations. Top it all off with veterans Alec Baldwin and Penelope Cruz sweeping in and stealing one scene after another and you have a film that is not to be missed. It will be nice to see Allen return to his New York stomping grounds, but I, for one, am a little sad to see these European escapades come to an end.
- Stephen Jannise, Film Program Director – Austin Film Festival
KILLER JOE is a feverish modern noir about Chris Smith (Emile Hirsh), a desperate teenager who has racked up a considerable debt during his failed attempt at being a drug dealer. Out of options, he approaches his father about hiring a hit man to take out his deadbeat, absent mother who has a 50 thousand dollar life insurance policy. Part of the money will go to settle his debts and the other part will go to Killer Joe Cooper (Matthew Mcconaughey), a Dallas detective who “has a business on the side.” The only issue is that Killer Joe demands his payment up-front, or else he would need a retainer. That is where Chris’s little sister, Dottie (Juno Temple) comes in.
Directed by William Friedkin, the man who brought you THE EXORCIST, KILLER JOE is mostly dominated by the commanding presence of Matthew Mcconaughey whose icy blue eyes give the character he plays a chilling seriousness. Popularly thought of as a one-trick pony, Mcconaughey is proving that he is anything but. As an actor, he has had numerous incarnations over the years starting with the man-child stoner of DAZED AND CONFUSED (1993), to the sexy country boy of his run of romantic comedies in the early 2000′s, and to the spray-taned, stiff-necked lawyer in BERNIE (2012) — not to mention his roles in MAGIC MIKE, and the coming Jeff Nichols film, MUD. In this film especially, he plays a role that is much more restrained than his previous roles. Coldly practical, introverted and almost emotionless in the first act, Killer Joe Cooper is an unarguably bad guy, but he is a complicated and occasionally sympathetic one. He contrasts heavily with the family he works for who he sees as dramatic, loud, and uncivilized. Joe’s attempts at bringing the quiet order and control he is used to ultimately backfire and cause the film to descend into chaos culminating in the shocking finale.
The grittiness and disturbing nature of KILLER JOE cannot be underrated. In fact, the daringness of the film earned it a NC17 rating. However, if you have a stomach for shock-value, KILLER JOE is a fun and thrilling film.
Abe (Jordan Gelber) is a resolutely average man whose life has been unstarling and consistent. Pushing 40, he still works at his father’s company, collects action figures, and lives in his parents’ house. When he meets a pretty, intriguing woman at a wedding, he acts as you would expect a man in arrested development would; he clearly does not have a clue. However, that is where the ordinary ends because once he proposes to Miranda (Selma Blair), the woman from the wedding whom he hardly knows, Todd Solondz’s latest feature, DARK HORSE, becomes something unexpected, biting, an breathtakingly unique.
