Best of the Decade: Film

It’s been a pretty wild ten years, I already discussed some of the larger trends in cinema, but now it’s time to discuss the ten best films of the decade. Yes, there’s still a few more key films to see, but I’m going to go ahead and put the list out now. Read on to find out the best on 00s cinema.

10. Ghost World - This film is the best kind of cross media adaptation. Most movies fail for not getting enough of the book, others, like the recent Watchmen film, failed for bringing nothing new to the table. Ghost World doesn’t try to replace the great comic book on which it’s based, it chooses instead to further flesh out the universe of the comic, and in the process functions perfectly as both a standalone film and as in tandem with the book.

And the film itself is one of the most probing explorations of the way that people in our irony driven culture struggle to express themselves and find meaning in a world where any sincere expression of feeling is considered uncool. Thora Birch seems to have vanished from films, but she was brilliant here, showing us the divide between Edith’s cold, cynical exterior and the lively, emotional person underneath. It’s one of the best depictions of the teenage experience in film, and even as loser heroes and a disdain for the mainstream became commonplace as the decade went on, few films managed to bring the insight and emotion this one did.



9. Waking Life - I’ve been happy to see this film pop up on a few other best of the decade lists, since I sensed a kind of backlash against it in recent years. I love it as a dreamlike meditation on a wide variety of interesting concepts and philosophical issues. I love works that force you think about the way you view the world, and give you new ideas and concepts to ponder. I first saw this movie shortly after reading The Invisibles for the first time, and it was a great followup, bringing me more philosophy and ideas to ponder.

And, despite its non-narrative nature, there is an interesting build and emotional engagement in the film. When Wiley floats away at the end of the film, there’s a sense of transcendence, of surrendering to the dream that may be our entire reality. All this is even without commenting on the film’s strikingly varied visual approach. As one of the speakers says, the most transcendent experience is discussion between two people, to share a part of ourselves with others, and become something more.



8. Donnie Darko - Another film that’s gone through a wave of critical praise and cultural backlash, I watched the film again a few months ago, and while it was clumsier in some ways than I remembered, with a lot of awkward dialogue and some odd plotting choices, it’s still a phenomenal work, an exquisite fusion of the Tibetan book of the dead with a twisted John Hughes universe. It’s a film that elevates the everyday into a transcendent struggle and features a myriad of visual elements that have already become iconic.

On top of the endlessly debatable philosophical elements, the film has a great soundtrack, including fantastic moments set to The Church’s “Under the Milky Way,” and Joy Division’s “Love Will Tear Us Apart.” Kelly hasn’t quite fulfilled the promise of this film, but as it is, it’s one of the strongest debut features of all time.



7. Inglorious Basterds - I haven’t loved a movie the way I loved Inglorious Basterds in a long time. The film snuck up one, I love Tarantino’s previous work, but weak Cannes buzz and a premise that didn’t thrill me meant I went in with mixed expectations. But, I left with total love for the film. Tarantino’s rambling, episodic narrative style has never been used to better effect, with each chapter building on the next, and altering tones and subject matter while maintaining an intense mastery of suspense.

It’s the final chapter where the film ascends to the level of the sublime, drawing together the film’s many disparate threads into a perfectly staged action climax. The high point for me, and one of the most haunting and beautiful images in cinema was Shoshanna’s post mortem message to the Germans who killed her and her family. The cinema screen igniting as she laughs is an image loaded with endless metaphors, but most importantly is pure emotion in the moment. People talk about the 90s as the decade of Tarantino, but for me, his 00s output is vastly superior.



6. The New World - Terence Malick was hailed as a master after only two films, and it’s amazing that in his twenty year absence from filmmaking, very few people even attempted to make the kind of dreamlike, beautiful films that he specializes in. And, with The New World, he made his masterpiece, an articulate distillation of the themes that consumed his previous films. First off, The New World is as beautiful as any film you’ll see. The way the sun cuts through trees, or reflects off water is astonishing, he manages to so thoroughly immerse you in the edenic world of pre-colonization America that when we finally get to the British civilization at the end of the film, it feels like an utterly alien culture.

But, it’s not just the visuals yet. The romance between John Smith and Pocohontas becomes an allegory for the European romance with the idea of America itself, and in the passage of men like Smith from the world, we see the way that America changed from a blank slate world that could be anything, to an extension of the European society that Smith fled. Smith is someone who crosses between worlds, and through his eyes, we become part of a society that seems initially alien, but is quickly welcoming and beguiling. Colin Farrell is fantastic in the film, but the real star is Q’Orianka Kilcher, who gives one of the decade’s best performances and embodies the spirit of the world Malick created. This film is practically a religious experience, a communion with a world far removed from our own, a dream that echoes down across time and calls us back to an eden long gone.



5. Before Sunset - The second Linklater film on the list has the most of the strengths I discussed earlier with Waking Life, the interesting philosophical concepts and fascinating discussion, but it adds an intense emotional element to the proceedings, so that you’re fully engaged on both an intellectual and emotional level. Sequels have such a bad track record, and particularly with a film as time capsule perfect as Before Sunrise, it seems like there’d be nowhere to go but down. But, in exploring the impact of Jesse and Celine’s meeting in a very real way, the film itself functions as almost a meta comment on our fear that the sequel will ruin what came before. They want to preserve that moment in amber, and let it stand as was, even as they’re drawn back together again. And, so are we, and thankfully, the film eclipses even its stellar predecessor with its probing examination of the way that a great experience has become a haunting emblem of what could be for these characters.

For a film that’s literally just two people talking, it’s extremely intense, winding its way from surface pleasantries and general discussion of themes and issues to an intense examination of what their relationship could be and whether it’s worth the risk for them to try to be together. And, the film’s final moments are a perfect ambiguous coda for these characters, at least until a few more years pass and we hopefully check in with them again.



4. 2046 - Another sequel to an arty film about a man haunted by a brief, but potent love 2046 takes a less direct approach than Before Sunset, but is similarly powerful in its examination of the ghosts that haunt us all. Most people are hailing In the Mood for Love as Wong Kar-Wai’s best film of the decade, and I love that movie too, but for me, In the Mood for Love misses out on a lot of the things that make WKW’s movies so great. It’s much more controlled and unified than his work typically is, a far cry from 2046’s jumbled chronology and mix of allegorical future segments with its period setting.

The whole film is gorgeous, but the future segments in particular are just unbelievable. Faye Wong walking through the train her shoes lighting up as she goes is one of my favorite images from the decade in film. Ultimately, the film is a perfect distillation of WKW’s aesthetic, drawing in elements from all his previous films. It’s such a perfect summation of his talent, he had basically no choice but to do something different after, this is his greatest hits tour, and it’s one of his most enduring and brilliant films.



3. Irreversible - There are some films that are talked about more as endurance tests than as enjoyable experiences, and films like Requiem for a Dream or Fat Girl pushed the boundaries of what an audience can tolerate. But, even those films can’t match the reputation of Irreversible, a film infamous for its ten minute real time rape scene and gruesome fire extinguisher assault. And yes, those are brutal sequences, but just focusing on those scenes ignores the film’s greatest strengths.

Those scenes are brutal on a spectacle level, but they become even more heartbreaking, and powerful, after you see the relationship that Alex and Marcus shared before her assault. Thanks to the backwards narrative structure we watch them going through their daily lives, oblivious to the terrible events awaiting them. Every choice they make puts them closer to the spiral that will destroy their lives, and as you watch, you can’t help but ask what if just one thing had changed. I don’t think that Noe is interested in punishing the audience, so much as upending our typical approach to a revenge movie. Seen in chronological order, the film would be a nihilistic, but emotionally satisfying film. But, seeing it in reverse makes clear how hollow revenge is. Marcus and Pierre’s quest for revenge dooms them and does nothing to heal Alex.

But, in the final moments of the film, you also get some of the most tender and emotionally authentic moments between a couple in any film. Real life couple Vincent Cassel and Monica Bellucci are fearless throughout and make the film so much more with their performances.

And, I also have to comment on the technical virtuosity of the film. The one take sequences are like nothing ever seen in cinema to date, with virtually every shot in the film featuring some kind of impossible camera move that enhances your experience of the narrative. Noe pushes boundaries, but primarily with the goal of making you feel the story, not just watch it He immerses you in character subjectivity so strongly that it makes people uncomfortable, but it’s also what makes the film a masterpiece.



2. Mulholland Dr. - As I discussed with Wong Kar-Wai and 2046, Mulholland Dr. functions as a career summation for everything Lynch has done to date, incorporating the 50s style and naïve heroines of the Blue Velvet era and blending it with the experiments in narrative subjectivity from Lost Highway to create a perfect Lynch greatest hits film. That’s not to say that it’s redundant though, it’s a refined version of what he’s done before, and comes across as his most well realized film to date.

The ingenious narrative structure has been widely dissected, but it’s notable that even as he plunges through layers of subjective reality, he keeps a coherent emotional throughline so that you can have no idea what happened, but you can understand exactly how it felt. The rambling narrative structure allows for some great vignettes along the way, and the post box sequence manages to cohere them all into a really satisfying single narrative. I love analyzing the film, but ultimately what I love most is Lynch at his best, crafting classic scenes like Betty’s audition or Club Silencio, the scene of the decade. INLAND EMPIRE is brilliant in its own way, but if Lynch never made another film after Mulholland Dr. this would be a perfect coda for his career.



1. Kill Bill Vol. 1 - All this talk of narrative structures and themes is great, but ultimately what we go to the movies for is the experience of singular moments, and no movie was more of a rush or featured as many perfect cinematic moments as Kill Bill Vol. 1. Yes, it’s not as ‘substantial’ as Tarantino’s other films, but it’s such an amazing in the moment experience that you don’t care about substance, you care about the perfect song choices for every scene, or the astonishing action sequences that are so much more satisfying than the typical bunch of cartoon characters fighting sequences we saw in many of this decade’s films.

Kill Bill for me hits that same place that Star Wars does, it’s mythic and archetypal, and a distillation of everyting that you want from a genre film. Most kung-fu movies disappoint you, they’re better in idea than conception. Kill Bill is the greatest kung-fu movie you can imagine and more, mashing up elements of countless other films into a thrilling new whole. I’ve seen the film seven or eight times at this point, and it’s still thrilling every time, best of the decade material for sure.

Defining Indie

At last year's Oscars, there were a bunch of articles about the fact that indie films were dominating the Oscars while the studio offerings failed to get many nominations. Concurrent with this was the idea that said indie films were out of touch with the mainstream, and the notion was that the Academy should try to nominate more "mainstream" film.

The major issue I have with this line of thought is the fact that these so called "indie" films are usually far from indie. Looking back at the Academy Awards last year, we had that indie Crash, which featured such obscure arthouse players as Sandra Bullock and Ludacris, or Good Night and Good Luck directed by and starring arguably the largest movie star on the planet. More recently, we've had the indie success of Little Miss Sunshine, starring the hottest comic on TV and star of one of last year's highest grossing comedies, Steve Carrell.

Even if these films are technically made with independent financing, with the talent involved, it's pretty clear that they're going to get some play. When picked up, they're put out by smaller divisions of major corporate studios, like Warner Independent or Fox Searchlight. So, saying that all these indie movies are coming out of nowhere and snatching up the nominations that should have went to major studio films is rather nonsensical. Whether it's Warner Bros. or Warner Independent, the money goes back to the same place. Actual independent films, like Andrew Bujalski's lo-fi stuff, or classics like Linklater's Slacker very rarely get any Academy attention, or viewers for that matter.

Essentially what's happened is that independent has become a synonym for art movie, a film where the quality of the piece more than the actors or effects is the primary draw. The studios were making such blatantly commercial films that they bought up smaller indie distributors to put out films that would get critical respect and award nominations. There's nothing wrong with this, most of the good American movies come out of these specialty divisions, Focus Features in particular has put out a bunch of really great films.

However, my issue with this is that the spectrum of production of shifted. Back in the 70s, a film like Good Night and Good Luck would have been a big studio film, targetted at a mainstream audience. Same for Crash, which is far from an art film. At that time, there were bad blockbuster type films, but in general, the films that were popular were the ones that also had artistic merit. That's the major difference between then and now, big films are sold as multi-media events and become commodities. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest may be a decent movie, but the quality of the film is insignificant compared to the marketing juggernaut around it.

Because the mainstream has become these generally lifeless blockbusters, formerly mainstream films are shifted into the indie world. That raises the question of what happens to true indies? If art house screens are taken up with a film like Little Miss Sunshine, where can foreign and really independent films play? Very few places is the basic answer, with a small amount of exceptions, foreign films get very little play here, same for artier American films.

Look at a film like Altman's 3 Women, this was made at a mainstream studio back in the 70s, today you'd be hard pressed to get any play for it. Even A Prarie Home Companion, a really accessible film with a whole bunch of stars, got limited play. To some extent, critical reaction can help out these smaller films, but in a lot of cases really indie films dont' get the critical support they deserve. Ellie Parker is a really well done indie comedy, but reviews just end up cracking on the digital video look. I saw the same thing in the early reviews for Lynch's Inland Empire, even though IE may look aesthetically worse than the polished film look of a big Hollywood movie, I can guarantee that it's more visually exciting than perfectly lit, but visually dead mainstream films.

So, this massive spectrum shift hurts us all as filmgoers. Mainstream films could be better, we've already seen it in the indie community. And indie films should be more challenging and innovative, not just there to provide something halway decent for a studio's award campaign. Strangely enough, the last three American films that I've loved were all released by major studios, Universal's Miami Vice and New Line's Domino and The New World, all doing more innovative filmmaking than anything in the indie community. So, occasionally a quality film does slip through, and I'm confident there's a bunch of good stuff coming up this fall.

Related Posts
The New Lynch Film and Digital Filmmaking (5/12/2005)
Great Films (12/19/2005)
Seriously, Crash? (3/6/2006)

Weekend Update

Elysian Fields

I'm heading into the city tonight to see Elysian Fields. I saw them back in March and it was fantastic, I'll write it up after I return tonight.

Comic-Con

The biggest comic book event of the year is going on right now, the San Diego Comicon. The biggest news for me is about Grant Morrison's new projects. When I heard he was revamping The Authority I wasn't too excited. The concept feels a bit 2000 and I was never a huge fan of the characters. However, his new take is brilliant, the Authority go through a dimensional warp and wind up in our world. Then, they set about to change our world for the better, one person at a time. Morrison's usually all about Silver Age craziness, so it's interesting to hear him talking about doing a very realistic series, even incorporating some Soderbergh style. This concept seems to be taken from the end of JLA: Classified, in which the Ultramarines were sent into a world without superheroes. It'll probably be at least a year before it turns up in trade, but I'm still psyched.

Seven Soldiers #1

In other Morrison news, Seven Soldiers #1 has finally been scheduled for release, October 25. It's a long wait, but in the long run it's worth it. I wouldn't want another Igor Kordey on New X-Men job. I'll probably reread the whole series before the release of #1.

Clerks II

I haven't gotten a chance to see Clerks II yet, but I'm going to get there soon and I'll write it up when I do. I rewatched the original Clerks and was a bit underwhelmed. The acting is so awful at some points and a lot of the jokes are very obvious. Jeff Anderson and Jason Mewes save the film however. Mewes is clearly the most talented, natural performer in the film. He's always funny even in the otherwise really weak Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. Smith has only made one really great movie and that's Chasing Amy, it's still in my all time top 20. The transition from extremely funny comedy to emotionally devestating drama is seamless.

A Scanner Darkly Revisit

I rewatched A Scanner Darkly a few days ago. I really liked the film, but it doesn't match up to the best of Linklater's work. I love the stuff in the house, but the scenes at the police station, with the scramble suits, are less satisfying. It's meant to show the way that these scramble suits remove any individuality, but they also make it very difficult to emotionally relate to the characters. However, the film does close on a wonderful note, Keanu's delivery of "A present for my friends, at Thanksgiving" makes it sound like he's just discovered the key to the universe. Here's my ranking of all Linklater's work:

Waking Life
Before Sunset
Before Sunrise
Dazed and Confused
School of Rock
A Scanner Darkly
Suburbia
Slacker
Tape
Bad News Bears
The Newton Boys

New Gods

I've been reading Jack Kirby's New Gods series. I got the trade because I wanted to better understand Morrison's Mister Miracle series. The book is full of crazy ideas and generally holds up. There's some goofiness, like the constant use of exclamation points and the exposition focused dialogue. Every issue it seemed that Victor Lanza would have to state his name and profession. "I'm Victor Lanza, insurance salesman." "Victor Lanza's the name, insurance salesman." "But I'm just a poor insurance salesman, Victor Lanza!" And so on. But, it's very cool to get the background on everything from the previous series. New Gods overwhelming assault of ideas and concepts was clearly a major influence on Morrison himself.

Music

This week I've been listening to the Scissor Sisters' first album a bunch. I'm regretting not going to Siren Festival last week, I would have loved to have seen them live. The album is a great dance-rock record and even the cover of 'Comfortably Numb' is growing on me.

The other album I've been loving is 'A Night on Earth' by Crazy P. Like Daft Punk, their stuff is a perfect fusion of 70s disco with contemporary house. The album is 75 minutes of great songs, but the highlight is the opening track, Lady T. Check out the video here. This video is fantastic as well, though the version of the song used is a remix, not the album version.

Upcoming Dates of Note
7/22 - Elysian Fields at Joe's Pub
7/28 - Miami Vice released
8/3 - New Pornographers at Summerstage
8/7 - Phoenix at Bowery Ballroom (Hopefully)
8/8 - Manderlay on DVD
8/15 - Veronica Mars Season 2 on DVD
8/17 - Gnarls Barkley at Summerstage
8/29 - Arrested Development Season 3 on DVD
9/22 - Science of Sleep Releated
9/24 - The Flaming Lips at Hammerstein
10/13 - The Fountain Released
10/20 - Marie Antoinette Released

Related Posts
A Scanner Darkly (7/6/2006)

A Scanner Darkly w/ Richard Linklater, Keanu, etc.

Tonight, I finally got to see one of my most anticipated films of 2006, Richard Linklater's A Scanner Darkly. Linklater's one of the best filmmakers working today, and Philip K. Dick is my favorite prose author ever, so I was justifiably excited about the fusion of these two creative masters. And, in attendance at the screening tonight were Richard himself, Keanu Reeves, Robert Downey Jr., Jonathan Lethem and Philip K. Dick's daughter, Isa. It's a big post, first I'm going to do a quick non-spoiler summary of my thoughts on the film, then go into spoilers, and after cover the talk, without spoilers. So, if you haven't seen the film, just skip the middle part.

So, quick summary. The film is very close to Dick's book, and better captures the essence of how I imagine the world of PKD than any other film, even Blade Runner. I always imagined his books taking place in a fusion of the future and the 70s, a look that this film captures nicely. There's some innovative uses of animation, notably the scrambler suit, but I felt slightly distanced from the characters due to the animation. It doesn't work as well for this story as it did for Waking Life.

Right now, I'd say it was a good film, possibly great. I need a review to better assess, but my first impressions are that some of the middle dragged a bit, but the ending, both of the film and the coda after, were fantastic and very powerful. I'll definitely give it another look in the next couple of weeks when it's out in the theater. With films that I've been waiting for for so long, the first viewing is usually difficult because the real film doesn't quite match the expectations I had for it. So, another viewing is needed.

On to spoilers...

The film's opening, with the bugs, is right out of the book, and it's also the broadest moment. I think it does an effective job of setting up the danger of Substance D, but it's a bit too over the top next to the darker rest of the film. I think the subsequent scene, with Freck and the policeman, was much closer to the humor of the rest of the film, and much more affecting.

I was expecting the film to be a fusion of Dick's themes and Linklater's conversational style, and to a large extent that's true. The lengthy conversation about leaving the apartment door unlocked was both funny and thematically right on target. The diner scene with Frenk and Barris was right out of Waking Life.

The most Dickian scenes were the scenes with Arctor and the doctors. That was really mind bending, crazy stuff, particularly the exchange about the cards. The basic conceit of the film is great, undercover cop work is right on target with PKD's favorite themes, because it's all about multiple levels of identity. You're an actor in real life and inevitably, as in Arctor's case, the charade starts to become real and the reality fades away. Arctor is playing an addict, but in playing an addict, he becomes one, and then he's no different from the people that he was working to stop.

One of the most powerful scenes in the film was the flashback to Arctor's family life. It's a brutal condemnation of complacent suburban lifestyle, and just how these addicts are going to keep doing the same thing everyday, so do ordinary people. They may not have the vices, but they too have routine, and after a while, the dose they need to get through the day increases. Arctor has developed too much of a tolerance to his everyday life, what worked once doesn't do it anymore and he has to leave. I like how he still talks about his family at the police job because it ties in to the mixed up identities. As Fred, Arctor is presenting this front of a cop, he's "posing as a narc," as he says. By this point in the story, Arctor the addict is the real person and the man in the scramber suit is the construction. This is what the opening speech scene is about, he can't keep towing the party line.

My biggest issue with the film has to do with the animation. I'm not a big fan of animation usually, I think an actor's face in live action can do more than an animator can ever capture. I can certainly understand why the film was animated, and aesthetically it looked great, but I felt a slight distance from the characters. In Waking Life the animation was fine because that was basically a talking head film, and the animation gave it some visual pazazz. Here, I liked the flourishes they did, like the dream sequences in the beginning, but I think it would have been easier to relate to the characters as real people if it was in live action.

Of course, one of the reasons for the animation was to create a hazy, dreamlike world, and in that respect it succeeded. I actually found myself wishing there were more moments of surrealism, like those dream sequences, because the film was on the whole constructed in a very traditional way. I also feel like the score could have done a lot more, the strings sounded very Waking Life, but I would have liked something a bit more prominent.

But, even through the animation, the actors all turned in great performances. This is a perfect role for Keanu, who can do any character, as long as it's a variation on a California surfer. He was great here, and his conversations with Downey and Harrelson sounded exactly like what high people sound like, full of lengthy debates over ridiculous minutiae.

The film has some pacing issues, but it's largely redeemed by a fantastic finale. Arctor is sent into Newpath and we see him in a very aloof state. He seems totally gone, but he still picks up the flower and the film ends with a wonderful shot of all the flowers and the thought that they might eventually be able to bring down Newpath. This was a fantastic ending, abetted by some nice Keanu voiceover.

So, I was definitely up on the film at that point, and then the final coda pushes things even further. The film ends with the afterword from the book, where Dick lists the people he knew that inspired the book, and wound up messed up by drugs. It's a very powerful anti-drug statement and a fantastic tribute to PKD.

Watching that coda made me think about the film's stance on drugs. It definitely indulges in humor surrounding the characters' addiction, but it ultimately comes down pretty clearly in the negative. All the users in the film are paranoid and clearly on the road to mental damage. However, the brief scene of middle class life is equally oppressive. So, what is Linklater suggesting is a better way to live?

With the revelation that Newpath is growing Substance D, and is in league with the government, Linklater seems to be indicting society as a whole, implying that we're complicit in our own imprisonment, be it in boring middle class life or in the squalor of drug addiction. It's generally pessimistic, but there is some hope there in the final moments.

So, this film has a lot that really works, but some issues that hold it back from the greatness that Linklater reached with Waking Life or Before Sunset. The biggest issue may be the fact that he is so faithful to the book. It's cool to have a film that is close, but Linklater is such a great filmmaker, it could have been interesting to see him claim the material for his own. Still, it's the best film of the year so far, and full of interesting thematic issues to ponder. I'll need another viewing before I give it a definitive assessment.



END SPOILERS

So, about the Q&A. Before the film, Keanu and Downey went up to introduce it, at that point Richard Linklater was not there, his flight was delayed. So, they did some funny banter, then headed into the audience and Keanu ends up sitting two seats down from me. It was cool to see him watch the movie, he was having some popcorn and seemed to be really enjoying it, always a big smile on his face.

After the film, all five people went up on the stage for a Q&A with some good stuff, but a few too many stock questions. I think I'm skewed being from New York, but Linklater talked at a really slow pace, and seemed a bit unsure of himself. But, I hear they take things slower out in Texas. Downey was a joker, his best comment was when he admitted he still wasn't sure what happened with the end of the film.

I've always been a Keanu defender, so I was glad to see that he was actually quite intellectual. He was the one always bringing the book to set, and had a lot of interesting stuff to say about his character, even if he did drift off into uncertain rambling occasionally. Still, he seemed to really engage with the film's ideas.

Linklater talked about how he had read 'Valis' a while back and shortly after Waking Life, decided to do a PKD adaptation as his next animated project. He actually ended up asking a bunch of questions to Isa about how her father worked, and what his life was like in the A Scanner Darkly era. She talked about how PKD rarely did revisions on his books, he would generally just plow through and finish them. He's someone who has so many ideas, it feels like he's just got to get them down on the page as fast as possible.

Most of the stories they told were stuff I'd read in interviews before, how Linklater got the rights to the book, the different approach in shooting for animation, the process of animating it, etc. However, there were enough interesting comments to make it worth it. This was a case where the focus was more on PKD's vision than on Linklater's, and considering how much of an autobiographical work this was for him, it's appropriate that the film be something of a tribute.

After the Q&A, I asked Isa why it was such a struggle for Linklater to get the rights to this book, but there's a ton of crappy movies based off PKD short stories. She said that they consider some of his stuff 'Philip K. Dick light,' and that's what gets turned into a bad action movie, but they keep a closer guard on his more personal stuff. So, don't worry about seeing John Woo's 'Valis.'

If nothing else, seeing this film and Q&A definitely made me want to check out some more PKD books. I've read a lot of his stuff, but I've still got some major works left to check out.

Related Posts
Finding Meaning in Discussion: On Linklater and the Before Duology (12/7/2004)
Dazed and Confused (3/23/2005)
Richard Linklater Day (7/22/2005)

Looking to '06

The year is almost over and 2005 has not turned out to be a great year for film, in large part due to the fact that a lot of the films I was really looking forward to got pushed back to 2006. But now that we're almost at 2006, this has become a good thing, and there's a whole bunch of movies I'm really looking forward to next year. Once again, some of these films might not make it out next year, but hopefully they all will and hopefully they'll be great. So, here's my ten most anticipated films of 2006.

12. The Departed - This is Scorsese's remake of the fantastic Hong Kong film Infernal Affairs. Normally I won't condone remakes, but in this case, it's such a great premise, it almost begs to be told again. I think IA was fantastic, but there are a lot of different things you can do with the basic premise, and it sounds like Jack Nicholson is going insane on this project. I think this picture speaks for itself. Hopefully he's going to give the kind of performance that makes this something unique, different from the pre-existing film.

11. Miami Vice - Once again, a remake, but this time it's Michael Mann updating his own TV series, so again, it's taking a basic premise and doing something different. Mann is always good, but I wasn't totally excited about this project until I saw the trailer, which is very cool, and features some very cool looking club scenes. The high point of Mann's Collateral was the shootout in the nightclub. Plus, it's got Gong Li, of 2046 fame, it looks to be a really stylish action film, regardless of whether or not it's pastel t-shirt under that suit jacket.

10. V For Vendetta - This is a movie I'm a bit wary of, Alan Moore disowned it and initial script reviews were weak, but the reviews coming out from early screenings are all exuberant, citing it as not only a great film, but an important cultural event. Moore's book is one of my favorite graphic novels, and there's certainly the potential for a good film. It's true that it's even half as good as the book, it'll be a strong film, and this looks like it'll be the biggest stretch of Natalie Portman's career, hopefully bringing back some of the steel resolve she had in Leon, when she gave one of the best performances in any film ever.

9. Angel-A - Speaking of Leon, Luc Besson has his first new film in six year coming out. It was actually released in France last week, and will hopefully make it over here next year. It seems to be an action/comedy/romance, filmed in striking black and white. Besson's stuff is always visuallly interesting, and the plot seems to play to his strengths, his films always feature strong women in action, and the title character here will definitely fill that role. Watching the trailer, the film looks to have some of the spirit of Amelie, but a bit darker, and most notably, it's got some very, very strong images. If Besson can come close to the level of The Professional, we'll have a great film.

8Art School Confidential - This is Terry Zwigoff and Daniel Clowes' followup to one of my favorite films, Ghost World. I loved the stuff with Claire in art school in season three of Six Feet Under, the odd dynamic of simultaneously working together and yet being each other's competition, wanting to top other peoples' work. There's a ton of potential for the cold, sarcastic characterization seen in Ghost World in this environment, the stuff with Illeana Douglas would seem to be a preview. There's not that many movies actually about the creation of art, but this would seem to be one and I'm hoping it'll be a biting dark comedy.

7. Fast Food Nation - This is one of two Richard Linklater films coming out next year, and I'm hoping it'll be a return to greatness after the weakness that was this year's Bad News Bear. Nation will apparently be a big ensemble piece, and that's definitely one of Linklater's strengths. Dazed and Confused did Altmanesque better than Altman himself ever did, and this film will likely touch on a lot of the alienation that D&C had. This will also be Linklater's most political film yet, all of his movies are concerned with big issues, but he's never done an issue movie to the extent that this one is. I'm hoping that he'll be able to create really strong characters so this isn't just an intellectual exercise, like Traffic was, but rather it's a really difficult emotional experience.

6. Clerks 2 - This is another one I'm not sure about. Smith hasn't made a really strong film since Chasing Amy, but I'm hoping that a return to low budget filmmaking will help curb some of the badness that plagued his last two films. On the one hand, it's a bit ridiculous to make a sequel to Clerks, it would indicate the failure to come up with anything new and a bottoming out after his attempt to go mainstream. But at the same time, Before Sunset showed how powerful the ten years later sequel can be, and if Smith does something along the lines of that film, we could have a great movie here. The early buzz sounds pretty good, but I'm going to have to reserve judgment until I've seen the film.

5. Marie Antoinette - Sofia Coppola is one of the most exciting voices in American film right now, and I basically trust that whatever she makes will be great. Normally, I'm not a fan of period pieces, but watching the trailer for this, the characters feel very contemporary and real, in the same way that the people in Barry Lyndon did. The whole thing has a very Lyndon feel, with characters who crash against the absurditities of their society. It's an interesting cast, and I'm really confident that this will be a great movie, we shall see.

4. A Scanner Darkly - Another Linklater film, it's great to see one of my favorite filmmakers adapting a book by one of my favorite authors. As Linklater's speech in Waking Life shows, he's a big PKD fan, and this project is definitely suited to his philosophizing stoner sensibility. PKD wasn't about glossy futures, as seen in Minority Report or Paycheck, he was much more about dirty, gritty lives that are inherently tied to the 60s and 70s society he lived in. This film seems to embrace that style, even as he uses the sci-fi technology. Plus, if anyone's ready to played a burnt out detective with an identity crisis, it's Keanu.

3. The Science of Sleep - Gondry's music video work is some of the most astonishing filmmaking you'll ever see, and Eternal Sunshine is one of the best fusions of crazy dreamlike filmmaking with a really strong emotional throughline. Science of Sleep follows along the lines of the video for 'Everlong,' which chronicles a man's attempts to save his girlfriend as he moves through a world of dreams. Other than the weak anomaly that was Human Nature, everything that Gondry's done has been fantastic, and this sounds like his most personal project yet, seeing as how it's written and directed by him. Gondry's done so much good work in the past, I'll see pretty much anything he puts out.

2. INLAND EMPIRE - After a five year wait, we'll at last have a new Lynch film. This is another one that has some concerns, for one it's shot on digital at Lynch's house, and he's been filming on and off for two years. This would not seem to lead to a cohesive film, however MD had a similar on and off production and that worked well, so hopefully this will too. The other potential holdup is his quest for world peace, which may make him feel a bit guilty about chronicling depression, death and violence. However, I'm confident that Lynch the filmmaker will remain seperate from Lynch peace crusader, and hopefully we'll get a great film here. The man is on a roll with Lost Highway and MD, I'm really excited to see what he does next.

1. The Fountain - This is a movie that's been in the works forever, and hopefully will finally make it to theaters next year. Aronofsky's Requiem for a Dream was one of the most intense pieces of filmmaking I've ever seen, you don't walk out of that final montage unaffected. With this new film, Aronofsky goes off into three different time periods, with stories that connect across time and space. This seems like it might be the most mind blowing sci-fi film since 2001, the only film to approach the blend of sci-fi and metaphysical truth that makes Kubrick's film one of the best ever made. The Fountain seems like it will touch on practically all my favorite topics, metaphysics, large cast, multiple time storytelling, and groundbreaking filmmaking. I need to see this movie.

So, it's looking like a pretty good year. There's the chance we could have a Paul Thomas Anderson film as well, and a very remote chance that Wong Kar-Wai will finish The Lady From Shanghai. But even with just this, it's looking like a great year. Looking at my preview of 2005, I only had seven films and three of them didn't even come out, so it's understandable it was a weak year, but with 06, if even half these films hit, it'll be a great year for cinema.

Bad News Bears

A few days ago, I promised to write a review of Richard Linklater's new film, Bad News Bears. I saw the film Monday, and the time has now come to review it. Quite frankly, this isn't a very good film, it's not a bad film, but coming from Linklater, you just expect more. It's not as bad as The Newton Boys, but it's his second weakest film, and certainly his most generic film, there's nothing uniquely Linklater about this.

As an auteur work it fails, as a film it's decent entertainment. The story is good, if cliched, and you do get caught up in the travails of the team. There were a lot of bits that had me laughing and Billy Bob Thornton is always entertaining to watch. The problem was too much time was spent with the kids and not enough with Billy Bob. It's largely a repeat of Thornton's Bad Santa schtick, only on a much lighter level, he never gets a chance to be really bad. That's understandable, this is a kid's movie, while Bad Santa wasn't, but still, a little more Billy Bob would have been nice. One of the best scenes was when Liz Whitewood propositions him for sex, and he has an awkward conversation with his son about why he's there.

But, there's just way too much time spent with the kids. In School of Rock, Linklater kept the focus on Jack Black and used the kids primarily as the straight man for him to play off of. Here, towards the end, Thornton becomes the straight man and the kids are the entertainment, only they're not very entertaining. Plus, in School of Rock it was entertaining to watch the kids play music, while watching the kids play baseball doesn't have the same inherent appeal.

Approaching it from an auteur perspective, I just can't see why Linklater would make this movie. It's not original or particularly meaningful, it's a throwaway you can barely remember once you walk out of the theater, and that's quite disappointing. In Dazed and Confused or School of Rock, he was able to craft mainstream movies that were clearly the products of an auteur. Here, he fails to do that, and winds up with a film that could have been directed by anyone. Considering Linklater is arguably the best American director out there today, coming off one of the best films of all time, Before Sunset, it's disheartening to see this utterly pointless movie. Still, at least A Scanner Darkly is on the way, a film that looks totally unique and has the chance to be a major leap for Linklater as an auteur.

Richard Linklater Day

Today marks the release of Richard Linklater's new film, The Bad News Bears. Linklater is one of my favorite filmmakers, and one of the few truly unique voices in modern American cinema. Linklater's someone whose career can be pretty easily split into personal films and more general studio stuff. Slacker, Waking Life, the Before duology, these are all more personal/indie stuff, while Newton Boys, School of Rock and Bad News Bears are studio stuff. Not surprisingly, the projects he has written are generally speaking much better. And, coming off perhaps his greatest film, Before Sunset, it's a bit disappointing that he chose to do this remake of the Bad News Bear. But, it is Linklater and I suspect it'll be a fun film. Plus, we've got an awesome film in the future, the animated Philip K. Dick adaptation A Scanner Darkly.

So, a review of Bad News Bears will be on here as soon as I see the film, but in the meantime, peruse some articles from the past that I've written about Linklater.

Finding Meaning in Discussion: On Linklater and the Before Duology
Top Ten Films of 2004
My 2004 Oscar Nominations
Review of The Newton Boys
Review of Suburbia

The first article is essential reading, the others are more peripheral in their discussion of Linklater, but are there for completion sake.

Coming Soon: I rewatched Magnolia Monday and I've been writing up a big piece about that film which should be up soon. When I see Bad News Bears, I'll review that. And perhaps we'll thrown in a personal update on what's up with me. So, look for all that soon.

The Rest of the Summer...

Now that the last Star Wars film has been released, the major thing I've been looking forward to for years now is gone. But that doesn't mean that there isn't some cool stuff coming up soon.

One week from today we've got the new season of Six Feet Under. It's been a while since I watched the show, I finished the fourth season back in September, but watching the trailer for the new season has me excited to see it. The people behind SFU make the most amazing trailers for the new seasons. The one for the fourth season was what made me watch the show in the first place. The trailer for this year was excellent as well, nicely showing the changes the characters have undergone over the course of the series, as they drive by past and future incarnations of themselves.



Judging from Yahoo's preview of the season, it looks like Billy is going to be playing a big part, which I'm happy about. Him and Brenda are my favorite characters on the show, and his interaction with the other characters always produces odd, uncomfortable moments. TV series need those characters that make people break out of their normal behavior patterns, because that's how deeper character traits are revealed.

This is the last season of Six Feet Under, and hopefully it'll be a satisfying ending. The past four seasons have been so great, I seriously doubt that Alan Ball and co. will screw things up, and I'm really looking forward to seeing what their final statement is.

I'm not really looking forward to any of the major movies coming out this summer. I'll definitely go see Batman Begins, War of the Worlds and some other stuff, but the slate is genuinely uninspiring. I guess it's more my changing film taste than a change in movie quality. Now, I look forward to the Holiday award movie season more than the summer blockbuster season. One film I do really want to see is Burton's Charlie and the Chocalate Factory. It looks like a return to the over the top visual style that has been on hold in his past two films. Plus, Johnny Depp is always entertaining.

Richard Linklater's Bad News Bears is another movie I do want to see, though I'm really not sure how good it will be. It seems to be along the lines of Bad Santa, which I did really like, but I don't really want to see a rehash of that. Plus, this one doesn't have Lauren "Fuck me Santa" Graham, who was essential to the success of the film. But it's Linklater, so I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt.

The other big summer release I'm most looking forward to is not even happening here, it's happening in Korea, where Chanwook Park's Sympathy for Lady Vengeance gets a release. Park is the master behind Oldboy and Lady Vengeance is the finale of his 'Vengeance Trilogy.' Oldboy's one of the most well made films I've seen, and I can't wait to see his next. Even though I didn't like JSA or Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance as much as Oldboy, his films are always interesting because Park has such a great eye. He composes shots that are always interesting to watch, that's his greatest strength as a filmmaker.



I'm not sure if it's just because we get their best stuff, but it seems like the films coming out of Asia are much more concerned with being visually interesting than American films. In American movies, the story and characters are definitely priority and the visual is an afterthought, while the directors there seem to be much more visually motivated. Both are important, but I find the Asian approach much more interesting to watch. A film like WKW's 2046 uses the medium so much better than the most critically acclaimed films here, things like Million Dollar Baby. That was a good story, but it's utterly uninteresting from a filmmaking standpoint.

A lot of people seem to equate style with showiness, and the idea is that it must inherently detract from the story, but that's not the case. In the best films, the stylistic choices are beautiful on their own and also enhance the viewer's enjoyment of the story. I would point to Irreversible, a film that is so technically dazzling and calls a lot of attention to its style, but all in the service of immersing you in the emotional beats of the story. Million Dollar Baby makes you feel for the characters, while Irreversible makes you feel what the characters are feeling, and that's a huge difference.

Review Revue

Being break, I've been watching a bunch of films.On March break, I watched a string of absoultely phenomenal films. I loved practically everything I watched. On this break, I have not been so lucky, I've seen some good films, but everything I've watched has its flaws.

subUrbia
This is the only Richard Linklater film I had not seen, largely because it has not been released on DVD. However, the library had the VHS, so I broke one of my major rules and watched a pan and scan presentation of the film. Despite those bad viewing conditions, I was pleasantly surprised by this film, and feel like it's a major piece of the Linklater canon. Linklater's films are notoriously talky, so it's appropriate that he should adapt a play.

The film touches on a lot of classic Linklater themes, chronicling the existence of a group of high school friends, who still live in the town where they grew up, even as they long for something better. It's quite similar to Slacker in that everyone talks big, but always ends up just talking, never doing. The film resonated for me because I am in a similar situation as the characters are, and even though I am going to college, that doesn't change the fact that I'm basically just hanging around.



These people are contrasted with their high school friend, Pony, who has made it big with his band, and is touring. They first sort of skirt around the issue of his success, but eventually it comes to the surface and the other characters are forced to confront their own lack of progress when they see how much Pony has done. Linklater is the master of talky films, and he gets great performances from his cast here, and keeps things interesting despite the fact that not that much happens in the film. I think it does a good job of capturing real life dynamics between friends and people who are drifting away. I'd imagine Linklater felt a lot of what Pony did when he returned home as a successful filmmaker. I feel like Linklater has a better handle on what my generation and the people slightly older than me are going through, and his films reflect the reality of our lives.

Miller's Crossing
I also watched the Coens' Miller's Crossing. Now, this is a film that has been quite acclaimed, with some people calling it their best. I don't know, but I just didn't like this film. I didn't feel the inventiveness and energy that is present in the Coens' other films, and it reminded me a lot of Richard Linkler's really weak Newton Boys. Both films seem to use a period setting as an excuse for not doing anything else interesting visually or with the narrative. This film was just a series of extended dialogue scenes as we moved through a whole bunch of double crosses that don't really lead anywhere. I didn't like the lead character, Tom, and tommy guns and fedoras alone cannot save a film. I really feel like I missed something with this film, because I don't understand how it could be so acclaimed. Perhaps in a few years, I'll give it another look, but for now, it goes in the bad column.

The Last Temptation of Christ
This is a film I've been wanting to see for a while, ever since I saw the X-Files episode, Amor Fati. This was an episode written by David Duchovny as an homage to Last Temptation, and it's arguably the best episode of the series, as well as one of the most interesting symbolic narratives I've ever seen. It took me five years , and two library checkouts to finally see the film, and it was a bit of a letdown after all that. The idea behind the film is to show Jesus' human side, his weakness and temptation, but the central piece, a fantasy sequence in which he marries Mary Magdalene is a very small piece of the film.



The vast majority of it is a fairly standard Jesus biography. I know that story so it wasn't too exciting to see all those scenes acted out again. I know about the water into wine, I know about Lazarus, and that stuff takes the focus away the film's core. The movie is too long, at 163 minutes. At least 20 minutes could have been cut out without hurting the story. And, the fantasy sequence is too short, that's the core of the film, but it comes about almost as an afterthought. I guess the X-Files episode might have skewed my expectations, but I feel like that episode used the premise a lot better than the film did.



That said, the film looks great, and really places you in a different world. Scorsese always makes good looking films, and this is no exception. Willam Defoe is great as Christ, but Harvey Keitel just doesn't work in this movie. He seems to be from New York not Jeruselam and his performance punctures the illusion of this world.

Spartacus
I've been going through Stanley Kubrick's film, seeing the ones I've missed, and last night I arrived at Spartacus. This was another long film, at 3 hours, 16 minutes. Watching this film was sort of strange. I was never particularly emotionally engaged with it. Classic Hollywood films were designed to minimize the evidence of the filmmaking, editing and camera movement were not supposed to draw attention to themselves. However, I feel like this also prevents the filmmakers from using these tools to draw you into the story and put you in the headspace of the characters. Now, Kubrick was never someone known for the high emotional content of his films, though I would dispute that in a few cases. However, this film adheres to classical Hollywood norms and as a result you're firmly put in the observer category, and never really engage with the characters.



That said, I was never bored by the film over its really long run time. Watching Miller's Crossing, I found myself checking the watch a number of times, but here I was just going through it, enjoying the film, but not loving it. I find it difficult to analyze most of Kubrick's pre-Strangelove stuff because he seems so tied to classical Hollywood convention, his films lack the personal input that's evident in his later films. Basically everything after Strangelove is either a great film, or a film that aims very high and doesn't quite make it, but is still essential viewing. But his early stuff doesn't particularly stand out from your typical classical Hollywood film. The one scene in this film that seemed different was the really bizarre snails and oyster scene, where an old man propositions Antoninus, asking him if he eats snails, oysters or both, with 'eating snails' a clear reference to gay sex. The scene seems out of place, but is also really entertaining, so I'm glad it's there.



The film remined me a bit of Revenge of the Sith, the Roman political machinations were a clear inspiration on the narrative of Star Wars. Also, the acting style really is quite similar to that of the prequels, which is what Lucas said. As much as I love those movies, this acting style is not the best. The characters are not emotionally engaged with the material here, and the ridiculous love scenes here are such a contrast to the astonishing emotional subtlety of something like Barry Lyndon. There truly was a revolution in 70s Hollywood, and I'm really glad it happened, because movies like this are good, but not great. And, the acting in Sith is so much better than the awful line delivery here. So, even if he is modeling things on the classical Hollywood style, Lucas is doing a much better job than they were. This film did fulfill the classical Hollywood doctrine of making an accessible entertaining film, but unfortunately sometimes the bigger the audience you target, the less personal the film is.

Breaking the Waves
So, today I went from the compromised populism of Spartacus to the extremely personal, challening filmmaking of Lars Von Trier. Von Trier is a filmmaker I had mixed feelings on going in. I loved Dogville, it's one of the most creative and rewarding films I've ever seen. However, I really disliked Dancer in the Dark, which seemed like an exercise in cruelty.

Von Trier's films are all revisionist melodramas, updating the idea of the suffering female hero. That's the one thing all his films, that I've seen at least, have in common, and in this film, there is a lot of suffering. The primary thing that made me like Dogville over Dancer was the fact that in Dancer in the Dark, we just watch a series of awful things happen to the main character and there's no variation, it's just a series of awful events. Dogville uses a similar narrative structure, but at the end, upends the idea of the suffering heroine, and allows her to get revenge for what she's gone through. That revenge is so powerful because we're conflicted. What she's doing is wrong, but after so many awful things happened to her, can we really let this town off the hook? Also, Grace was very smart, while Bjork in Dancer was borderline retarded.



Bess, the lead in this film, also treads on that border, she's mentally unstable. However, I think the characters in this film are much truer than those in Dancer. Bess' actions are motivated, we understand what she's doing, but she's laboring under the false belief that what she's doing can save her husband. It's a pretty harrowing film, and Bess' final fate is not easy to watch.

The style of the film is really intersting. Von Trier uses a constantly roving handheld camera, a style I happen to love, as well as a lot of jump cuts. He's clearly someone who was made for digital filmmaking, though I belive this was shot on film, it's got a grain that makes it look like most digital films. I really like the chapter headings, placid nature scenes with 60s and 70s rock music playing in the background. They're a nice contrast from the handheld, dogme world of the film. Von Trier uses no score, all the music is source.

The last scene has me a bit confused. I think Von Trier intended to show that Bess had made it to heaven, but I guess it's something to ponder. It's a good looking shot whatever the meaning was.

Ultimately the film sort of bothers me because of the level of suffering Bess goes through. The entire narrative is just bad stuff happening to her, and there's not that catharsis that Dogville offers. However, she is more relatable than the Bjork character, so this film falls somewhere in between the other two Von Trier films. Von Trier, like Gaspar Noe, makes films that challenge you, and I'm really glad I watched this movie, even though I do have a lot of issues with it.

Well, there you have it, next on the to watch list are La Dolce Vita, Velvet Goldmine, Three Kings, The Killing and A Fistful of Dollars.

Review Roundup

While I was still on break, I watched Richard Linklater's The Newton Boys. Linklater is one of the best filmmakers working today, but this film wasn't very good. All of his other movies have been set in either the present or the recent past (the 70s of Dazed and Confused). While I don't think he can only do movies about the present, Waking Life was certainly an interesting exploration of an odd world, but I think a Linklater film requires characters who exist in a world with relevance to the viewer. All of his other films have relatively universal themes, but The Newton Boys is a caper movie about bank robbers. You can't really relate to this, and the 1920s setting is further alienating. The movie has a lot more plot than your typical Linklater, and the film just doesn't quite work. You don't really care about the characters and things just go along, with no effect on the viewer. It's admirable to try something different, but this was a much too conventional film for Linklater. It didn't have any kind of personal touch.



I also saw Gone With the Wind. Now, this is an undisputed classic, and even today, 66 years after its original release, it's still a spectacular, visually dazzling film. In the film, there's a sense of discovery about the medium, like this film was trying to go beyond everything that had come before in terms of dazzling visuals. In this sense, it's tied to the art cinema of years later, when crafting impressive visuals is as important as crafting a coherent narrative. Despite being a four hour movie, not that much stuff happens, the narrative is really a showcase for visual splendor, and the film succeeds on that level. It's not a perfect film, there's issues surrounding race relations and some of the acting suffers from the typical overwroughtness of Hollywood studio era filmmaking, but by the time you reach "Frankly my dear I don't give a damn," it's pretty much impossible not to be impressed by what this film accomplished. The great films are always the ones that push the boundary of the medium in some way, and that's what this film did.



I also saw To Live by Zhang Yimou, the man who directed Hero, House of Flying Daggers and The Road Home. To Live is an earlier film, and to my mind, a much weaker film, or at least one that's less accessible to a Western audience. All his other films that I've seen are more about people than specific ties to Chinese history, with the arguable exception of Hero, but that's so visually rich, you can get by without knowing the history. To Live is all about the rise of communism in twentieth century China, and it falls into the trap of a lot of movies that cover a big chunk of time. This film goes from the 1930s to the 1960s, and even though a lot of stuff happens, I don't get a sense of consistent character arcs. It's more the world changes around the characters than the characters doing stuff to change their lives. So, I felt sort of removed from what was going on, and as the tragedies piled up, you eventually become numb to the bad stuff. This film was clearly meant for a Chinese audience, whereas someone like Wong Kar-Wai is making films that can appeal to pretty much anyone.

To Live could actually almost be a Chinese Gone with the Wind, since both films show the turmoil that a civil war causes for civilians, and the various trials they undergo. I think Gone With the Wind works better because it has a stronger emotional hook. You really care about Scarlett, and understand what she's going through, while the people in To Live change so much over time, you get the sense that they are just blank slates for whatever chunk of plot has to come next. While a film can succeed even if you aren't emotionally attached to the characters, To Live could not because it wasn't interesting enough on its own terms, it needed character hooks to make it work.

I also saw the film Blanc from the three colors trilogy. This was an odd film, a dark comedy that wasn't particularly funny, it was more about the absurdity of life. This felt a lot like the stereotypical art film, not much happens, it's set in Eastern Europe, doesn't really have a plot. There were some cool shots, particularly the wedding scenes, but on the whole this one didn't really work for me. I liked Bleu, the first of the trilogy, much better. And another strike against this film is Julie Delpy barely gets anything to do, seeing her on the box I assumed she'd have a bigger role, but that's more a fault of the marketing than of the film itself.



Related Posts
Finding Meaning in Discussion: On Linklater and the Before Duology (12/7/2004)
Dazed and Confused (3/23/2005)
Richard Linklater Day (7/22/2005)

Dazed and Confused

Today, I watched Dazed and Confused, the excellent film from director Richard Linklater. Linklater is one of the most interesting directors working today and is one of the biggest influences on the stuff that I've done. Linklater is notable for maintaining an independent voice even when working on big studio films, such as School of Rock and this film.

Dazed was made after his breakthrough film, Slacker, an independently financed film that put him on the map. Slacker is a non-narrative journey through the city of Austin, stopping off just long enough to hear what each character has to say, then moving on. Waking Life is structurally very similar to Slacker. After the success of Slacker he was given the opportunity to make a higher budget, more mainstream studio film, an opportunity that proves the death knell of many people who have made a great independent film. It's very easy to make a bad, or at least more conventional, less unique film when given this opportunity.

Luckily, Linklater actually improves on his first outing and crafts a really art cinema version of the teen comedy. The film drifts through a bunch of seperate character's lives, with the narrative being passed along from character to character in the same manner as in Slacker. The film doesn't really have a plot, it's just a bunch of stuff that happens, but it works becuase the film isn't about character so much as about capturing a period of time. Linklater does a great job of giving the film a 70s feeling. The soundtrack is great, and the production design make sthe film feel authentically period. However, he also touches on universal themes. So, while the film is set in the 70s, it's also timeless.

Linklater has such a great ear for talk that he's able to make some twenty unique characters in minimal time. Just from what people say, we can understand everything about them. He has an ear for minute details in dialogue that give the film a lot of realism. And, because he doesn't have to service a narrative, the dialogue is always natural, not subordinated to the demands of a story. Dazed and Confused has much more in common with French New Wave and 60s art cinema than it does with any other teen comedy ever made. Even though the film was advertised as a drug film, I think it works more as just a great art film within a traditionally commercial genre.

I like the way the film simultaneously inspires nostalgia and condemns it. To go all this effort to recreate his high school years clearly indicates that Linklater has strong love for those times, and wants to share that love with others. The success of the film is pretty much dependent on the viewer feeling on some level that high school was a great time, and wouldn't it be great to have another go at it. But then at the end, he upends this by having Pink reject this very nostalgia, and say that he's only killing time before he can leave. It's a great embrace of the odd relationship I think everyone has with high school. When you're there you can't wait to leave, but after that, there's always a part of you that would love to go back there. It's wise that Linklater has the character say he wants to leave, even though Pink ten years down the line may just be saying "Wow, those were the best years of my life."

Related Posts
Finding Meaning in Discussion: On Linklater and the Before Duology (12/7/2004)
Richard Linklater Day (7/22/2005)

Oscar Nominations

Well, the Oscar nominations were released today. They pretty much conformed with expectations. I was glad to see the screenplay nods for Eternal Sunshine and especially for Before Sunset. I don't see much chance for either, but at least they got some love. One thing that bothers me is most of the movies that were nominated in the upper categories were good movies, but they weren't the sort of movies you get really passionate about. Now, I'll admit I haven't seen any of the best picture nominees other than Sideways, but taking Sideways as an example, it's a really good movie, but it's not great. Before Sunset, Eternal Sunshine, even Garden State, these are movies that really stick with you, really personal and emotional movies. Sideways, and the other nominees feel like they're well made, but they're not auteur movies. There's not one original screenplay among them, and three of the five are biopics. Generally speaking, a film's going to work better if it moves from director's head to screen, rather than from reality through team of writers through director to screen. So, as I said when I was talking about Mystic River a few weeks ago, they may be good movies, but they don't feel personal and inspired. They aren't movies that make me as a viewer want to go out and make a film.

So, enough of that. Since the academy didn't give me all the love, here's what my nominees would be if I had my way of things.

Actor
Jim Carrey - Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Min-Sik Choi - Oldboy
Paul Giamatti - Sideways
Ethan Hawke - Before Sunset
Tony Leung - 2046

My winner here would be Jim Carrey. It's a character so far removed from anything he's played in the past, and he just becomes Joel. He's the invisible center of the movie, and if he hadn't worked, the whole thing would have collapsed

Actress
Julie Delpy - Before Sunset
Nicole Kidman - Dogville
Natalie Portman - Garden State
Uma Thurman - Kill Bill II
Kate Winslet - Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Julie Delpy gets it. This is actually the catergory I had the toughest time filling, other than Julie and Nicole Kidman, no one was really essential. However, Delpy definitely is. For all I know, she is the character, she's that good. She makes a simple reach into an absolutely heartbreaking moment. She has to lie in character, and also spend a lot of time dancing around the truth, in massive five minute single take shots. Her singing scene, her dancing at the end, she totally is this person, and that's what acting's all about.

Supporting Actor
David Carradine - Kill Bill II
Thomas Haden Church - Sideways
Michael Madsen - Kill Bill II
Peter Saarsgard - Garden State
Mark Wahlberg - I Heart Huckabee's

Carradine here hands down. The Bill character very easily could have been a let down after a movie of buildup, but Carradine completely pulls it off, and makes someone so nice and gentle, you can't help but like him, while at the same time hating him. It's a tricky line, but in the end, despite the movie being called Kill Bill, I really wanted him to live.

Supporting Actress
Maggie Cheung - Hero
Natalie Portman - Closer
Naomi Watts - I Heart Huckabee's
Faye Wong - 2046
Zhang Ziyi - 2046

Faye Wong for 2046. While Zhang Ziyi has the bigger role, in many ways she's even the lead, it's Faye who owns the movie for me. She's good in the present, but in the short robot story within the movie, she's breathtaking. It's purely visual acting, but she conveys so much emotion in a brief time. I think those robot scenes are the best thing Wong Kar-Wai has ever done and that's largely because of Faye's performance. Even in this future setting, she keeps things emotionally centered. There's a scene with intertitles that gets to me so much. I need to see more Faye Wong movies, since she's been the highlight of both WKW movies she's been in, and elevates his already amazing work to another level.

Screenplay
Zach Braff - Garden State
Charlie Kaufman - Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Richard Linklater, Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy - Before Sunset
Quentin Tarantino - Kill Bill II
Lars Von Trier - Dogville

This one goes to Richard, Ethan and Julie. Their movie is literally just people talking, so the screenplay is the movie, which isn't to knock the directing, which has some awe inspiring dolly shots, but it's in the words that our joy lies, and o, what words they are! You can tell so much of each of them has gone into the script, and it wonderfully plays off of Sunrise, while at the same time crafting a deeper and richer film. The dialogue sounds like real people talking, and even in the first part, where they're sort of lying to each other, we can understand what they really want to say. And then in the end, it's just a torrent of unrestrained emotion. This is one for the ages.

Director
Zach Braff - Garden State
Michel Gondry - Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Chanwook Park - Oldboy
Quentin Tarantino - Kill Bill II
Wong Kar-Wai - 2046

Gondry gets it here. He brings the crazy visual style developed on years of music videos, and applies it to a brilliant narrative. It's not surprising that Gondry pulls off dazzling effects, what surprises is how he fuses the craziness with very real emotional content. Other than Before Sunset, this is the most emotionally relevant film of 2004, and Gondry pulls it off. The man can barely speak English, and yet he gets brilliant performances and incredibly real character interaction. Word.

Picture
Before Sunset
Dogville
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Garden State
Kill Bill II

I've got to give it to Eternal. Visually amazing and emotionally engrossing. That's what film should be.

And in the other catergories, I'll just give a winner.

Cinematography - This belongs to 2046 and Christopher Doyle. Every frame is gorgeous, be it the future or the 60s. Visually, this surpasses In the Mood for Love and that's saying something.

Editing - Oldboy. Park's film has an incredible pop, and that's largely due to fast paced editing, that works perfectly with the music, and uses a lot of nifty narrative tricks.

Art Direction - 2046, and Chang once again works his magic. The cinematography is gorgeous, but that's largely because of the phenomenal sets. Both the future stuff and the 60s are pure eye candy.

Costume Design - 2046 again. The people look great, no matter how bad things get, they can still dress well. Extra props to the future stuff, which goes a long way to helping the performances.

Music - Jon Brion's score for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind sets the right mood for the film, and is very listenable on its own.

Original Song - I'm not sure if it qualifies, but Julie Delpy's 'Waltz for a Night,' is both a great song on its own, and great in the context of the movie. An excellent use of music to convey narrative information.

Makeup - Um, Shaun of the Dead I guess. Those were some good looking zombies.

Sound/Sound Editing - Kill Bill II. The buried alive sequence was one of the greatest uses of sound ever in a film.

Visual Effects - Sky Captain. Say what you will about the film, it was very cool looking, and those effects were pretty damn seamless.

Animated Film - The Incredibles. I think it may have been a bit overhyped, but it was a really strong movie. Pixar's third best film, behind the two Toy Stories.

Well, there you are.

Related Posts
The 2005 Oscar Nominations (1/31/2006)
My 2005 Oscar Nominations (1/31/2006)

Top 10 Films of 2004

I've been working on filming the movie, and it's going really well. It's definitely an improvement over everything I've done in the past, and as long as each one we do keeps getting better, it's good. It's unfortunate that we're always under time pressure, since I'd love to spend more time working on shots, but it's just not plausible. As is, there's some great shots, but I feel like we could be doing more with each frame, but are sort of limited by the time we can spend on each scene. But, it's a learning experience, and getting the story conveyed is the most important part of the process, and I think we're definitely doing that. Plus, I'm having fun along the way, which is also critical. It's just cool to see stuff I imagined being acted out in reality.

So, I've seen pretty much all the movies I really wanted to see that came out in 2004, which means it's time to drop the year's top ten list.

10. I Heart Huckabee's - The black bag sequences in this movie just owned, and were some of the most original cinema I've ever seen. I love the fact that the movie focuses on an intellectual, philosophical dispute, and the way that the events of the movie lead to an intellectual rather than plot-based resolution. I can relate much better to someone who's got a crisis of thought rather than a real pressing physical crisis. Uniformly great acting, particularly from Mark Wahlberg and Naomi Watts, and the Shania Twain cameo was genius.

9. Shaun of the Dead - It's not as good as Spaced, the TV show by the same people, but that doesn't mean it wasn't really good. There were some hilarious bits, but throughout the film, there was character development, and actual attention paid to making the characters change, rather than just getting in gags or forwarding the plot. The end gets a bit too much like a conventional zombie film, but particularly in the first half, this is a really entertaining, smart and funny film.

8. Hero - The colors alone made this a phenomenal film, but the looping narrative structure and some great action sequences gave it a real epic feeling, capturing the mythic nature of old American westerns. It doesn't hurt that two of my favorites actors, Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung are in the film either. This is how an action movie should be shot, as a showcase for phenomenal cinematography and production design. The green sequence and the leaf fight were notable highlights.

7. 2046 - Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung appear again here, but this one's most about Tony, who puts in the best performance of his career. Now, technically this film doesn't come out here until 2005, but it was made in 2004, so it's on the list. I talked a lot about this a few days back, but it's one of Wong Kar-Wai's best, and that's saying something. His use of the sci-fi storyline was inspired, and the sadness of the film was profound. Every single frame had something interesting visually, and I love the ties to WKW's previous works. I feel sort of guilty about ranking this so low, since it was a brilliant film, but there was just so much good stuff this year.

6. Oldboy - Damn, Asia, you don't stop making great films. Now, this film was released in 2003 in Asia, and won't be released here in 2005, buut I saw it it this year, so it's on the list. After seeing Kill Bill I, you might think there's nowhere left for the revenge film to go, but Chan Wook-Park disproves that with this incredible film. This is a film that just pops, with brilliant frames and great use of music. The one take tracking shot in which Oh Daeseu fights a whole gang of people is the sort of thing that makes you say "Respect." The prison sequence is another really dazzling piece of filmmaking, and the ending leaves you thinking. This film is just so alive and popping, it's amazing. There's supposedly a remake in the works, but watch this, because other than Kill Bill, it's been a long time since I've seen an action movie this good.

5. Dogville - Yet another foreign film, this one's from Denmark and director Lars Von Trier. Three hours long, taking place on a stage with chalk outlines instead of sets, you may say, "That doesn't sound very entertaining." Well, it is very entertaining, and it's also brutal and thought provoking. This is a slow build film that draws you into a sort of funk and then jolts you out of it with a morally ambiguous ending that makes you wonder just how much Von Trier hates people. Nicole Kidman gives probably her best performance here, and the rest of the cast does a great job of giving the feeling that this stage is not a stage, but in fact, a fully functioning town.

4. Garden State - A film that hit me at exactly the right time, and is pretty personally relatable, so I may be a bit biased in my liking of it, but that doesn't take away from the great direction and writing of Zach Braff. I love the way the beginning of the film uses all sorts of wacky visuals to bring you into the world, and then segues into a more character focused story. I like the fact that this isn't a really plot driven film, the events come out of the characters. I even love the ending, which is consistently knocked. Maybe it's because I'm not jaded enough, but I think it makes sense for him to give it a try with Sam, the one person in his life who he has really connected with. That's more important than getting back to working in a restaurant.

3. Kill Bill Volume 2 - A very different film from Volume 1, so different that I was a bit disappointed on the first viewing, since the film was so completely different from what I was expecting. However, upon seeing it again, I really loved the film. It's Tarantino's most mature film, and also full of incredible pop moments, notably the training sequence and the trailer fight. The buried alive sequence was another highlight, one of the best uses of sound in a film ever. I love how the ending throws everything that's come before into question, and humanizes all the characters involved. Volume 1 is about the gradual cartoonization of the bride, two is about the humanization of all the characters. Rather than fighting mythic yakuza leaders, she's fighting the bouncer at a strip club, and an old man. David Carradine owns in this movie, it's one of the best performances of the year. The ending is a catharsis, and then the credits bring back all the great moments from the duology, a final glimpse at the world that Tarantino created. The two films together are an astonishing piece of work.

2. Before Sunset - From an action packed, pop style spectacular we now move to two people talking for eighty minutes. That's it, but the conversation is riveting, and the suspense in this film is more than you'll get from any horror movie. Linklater perfectly captures the feelings of regret that people have about things that were done or weren't done in the past. Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy completely inhabit their characters, slipping back in after a nine year gap. The beginning of the film, you can tell that they feel an awkwardness and want to get deeper, but are stuck on the surface. It's not just the lines, it's the delivery and physical mannerisms. I love the way this film seems to be much more cynical than Sunrise, but is in fact full of the exact same romantic spirit of its predecessor, even more so, as the ending shows. The ending is so simple and yet it left me smiling for a long time after leaving the theater. This film is not only brilliant, it makes its predecessor even better. Richard Linklater is on an unparalleled role in recent years, and these two films, Before Sunrise and Before Sunset, contain everything that's unique and exciting about his filmmaking.

1. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind - It's been a while since this one came out, but it's still brilliant. This film was a perfect fusion of visual technique with story, using the effects to emphasize character emotion rather than replace it. Gondry is a visual master, I love the run down feel of the technology, and the mundaneness of it. The dinky Lacuna Inc. is the most Philip K. Dickian thing ever filmed. This is one of Kaufman's best scripts, so emotionally real. Jim Carrey gives by far his best performance ever, so low key and real. Jon Brion provides another great score, which gives the film a vaguely nostalgic feel throughout. The way that the narrative structure is used to gradually reveal plot developments to us is so brilliant, and the show offy structure never overwhelms the story at the heart of the film.

What a year it was. America got a bit served, with only four films in the top ten, but maybe that means we have to kick up our game a bit.

Related Posts
Richard Linklater Day (7/22/2005)
Wong Kar-Wai Day (8/3/2005)
Top Ten Films of 2005 (1/1/2006)

Looking to '05

So, a couple more days and 2003 will join years 1-2003 in the been there, done that catergory, which means we've got a new year to look forward to. Many major events will happen in 2005, most notably I'll start up my third decade of life, as I turn the big two-oh. What other major event happens on that day, May 19, 2005? Why, it's the release of Star Wars: Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, the final Star Wars movie ever. Talk about the end of an era, as my teen years draw to a close, so does the saga that has shaped me more than any other piece of fiction I've ever run in to. When I was a young lad of three or four, I saw Star Wars, and was hooked on films from then on. I made it through the dark era of the early 90s, the boom time of the Special Editions and the backlash of the prequels. It's been a great run, and I'm not happy to see it come to a close, but I am really excited about seeing the film itself. In fact, it ranks number one on my most anticipated films of 2005:

1. Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith - As I said, this one's very close to my heart. It probably won't be the best film of the year, but I'm still psyched to see it more than any other, and it probably will be one of the best theatrical experiences. I think the prequel trilogy so far has been good, but it can't compare to the original trilogy, nothing can. However, this is the story I've been waiting for since the 80s, and to finally connect the two will be quite something. It's the end of an era here.

2. Sin City - The trailer is a thing of beauty, it perfectly captures the look and the feel of the books, which are brilliant. The Yellow Bastard left me in shock staring at the final pages, and I want to see that done in film. The cast is great, the look is completely unique, and the movie feels totally differnet from anything else ever released. Even if this fails on some levels, it's going to look so good, it'll at least be entertaining to watch.

3. The Fountain - Darren Aronofsky's long rumored "post Matrix" sci-fi project seems to finally be filming, and may actually be released in 2005, here's hoping. I'm not really sure what the plot is, but it has something to do with the fountain of youth, and seems very Philip K. Dick/Grant Morrison. Aronofsky's already one of my favorite directors, so combining that with a story that's like one of my favorite writers, awesomeness potential is off the charts. I think this is going to be the film that elevates Darren from an already high level to celluloid God. We shall see.

4. 2046 - I'll actually be seeing this one in the next couple of weeks, on a Chinese all region DVD, but it'll also be released in the theater, and I'm hoping to get there as well. This is by the great director, Wong Kar-Wai. I've now seen all his other films, and this one looks like it's got the potential to be his best. Extremely stylish, a great cast, and his always great direction should put this over the top. I'd like to see it crossover and make it to the mainstream, in addition to the art cinemas, becuase Wong's style is something that needs to get out there into the cultural consciousness.

5. A Scanner Darkly - Richard Linklater's next, an adaptation of the Philip K. Dick book, done in the animation style of Waking Life. I liked the book a lot, and based on Waking Life, Linklater is clearly a PKD fan. Linklater has done a lot of movies talking about odd stuff, but he's never really done a sci-fi movie, so this should be interesting to see. It'll almost certainly be better than the recent string of awful PKD adaptations that have bombed theaters. Linklater is one of the best filmmakers working today, and he's coming off his best work yet, Before Sunset, so this will be crucial in seeing if he can do more than just talk.

6. Serenity - Joss Whedon writes and directs a film based on his cancelled series, Firefly. I've only seen three eps of Firefly, but it's got a lot of potential, and it's going to be really interesting to see Joss step things up to a feature film after so many years in TV. I'm hoping for a really arty film, rather than a mainstream action type movie, but we'll see. If this is a success, maybe we'll see another Buffyverse project.

7. Charlie and the Chocalate Factory - Tim Burton's next. I was a bit hesitant about this, but the trailer is so over the top, I've got a better feeling. It's definitely a return to classic Burton in terms of ridiculous visual style, after the toned down Planet of the Apes and Big Fish. This'll probably turn out to be his best film since Mars Attacks.

So, those seven should be pretty solid, and hopefully some other stuff will turn up as well. Still no sign of new David Lynch or Paul Thomas Anderson, but maybe by 2005, they'll have started up a new project, and maybe we'll even see some new filmmakers dropping great films, or existing ones stepping up their game. So much potential in a new year of stuff. It is good.

Related Posts
My 2005 Oscar Nominations (1/31/2005)
Looking to '06 (12/27/2005)
Top 10 Films of 2005 (1/1/2006)

Finding Meaning in Discussion: On Linklater and the Before Duology

Yesterday I was talking about Before Sunset, and I feel the need to talk about it again, because it's both an amazing movie and a movie that means a lot to me personally. In 1995, a movie called Before Sunrise was released. It was about Jesse and Celine, two strangers who meet on a train, and spend a night wandering about Europe, talking about philosophy, society and many big issues. Nine years later, they meet again, and Before Sunset chronicles the eighty minute discussion they have after meeting each other.

The reason I saw Before Sunrise was because it was directed by Richard Linklater, who made School of Rock, but more importantly, he also made Waking Life, which is another of my favorite movies. Waking Life actually features an appearance from Jesse and Celine and their dialogue in the movie, about her idea that she is an old woman looking back on her life, is lifted from Before Sunrise. Waking Life had a nominal main character, but it was really, much like Linklater's debut film Slacker, a collection of short thoughts from a large variety of people. We don't stay on anyone too long, and each of them gets just enough time to give us a little speech on what they're interested in.

While it's tough to say which is the better film, because Waking Life has so much I love in it, the Before movies do something that no other Linklater movies does, and that's spend a lot of time developing the characters. I don't think either of the Before movies have the sheer variety of interesting concepts presented in Waking Life, but when the characters talk about something, it's a lot more interesting, because you know who these people are, and the experiences that they bring to the discussion.

The two most influential pieces of fiction I've ingested in the past couple of years, probably even since Star Wars, have been The Invisibles and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. What Before Sunset does is combine the intellectual questioning and exploration of ideas and thoughts of The Invisibles with the emotional drama of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. In doing so, Before Sunset represents where I'd like to be, and in a lot of ways where I am now.

Waking Life, for all its passion, is ultimately a movie of the brain. You watch it and your mind is challenged, but emotionally, it doesn't really hit you. Before Sunset is emotionally overwhelming. One of my favorite moments in the movie is when Jesse is talking in the car, and we see Celine reach out to touch him, only to pull her hand back. We can see her longing, but she just can't quite make the connection.

The movie's primary emotional temperature is frustration. Both characters are frustrated with the fact that they want something more from life, they want to live out what their night in Vienna, in Sunrise, promised them, and no matter what they do, there'll always be the specter of that hanging over their heads, their younger, more romantic selves, the people they can never be again. Rewatching Sunrise after seeing Sunset, one exchange really stands out, and that's what Jesse says to get Celine off the train and into the city with him. He says "Alright, alright. Think of it like this. Um, uh, jump ahead, ten, twenty years, okay, and you're married. Only your marriage doesn't have that same energy that it used to have, you know. You start to blame your husband. You start to think about all those guys you've met in your life, and what might have happened if you'd picked up with one of them, right? Well, I'm one of those guys. That's me, you know. So think of this as time travel, from then, to now, uh, to find out what you're missing out on. See, what this really could be is a gigantic favor to both you and your future husband, to find out that you're not missing out on anything. I'm just as big a loser as he is, totally unmotivated, totally boring, and, uh, you made the right choice, and you're really happy"

So, in Sunset, it is the fact that they did go to Vienna that leaves them thinking. Jesse is married, and it's not going well, and a large part of that is probably due to the fact that he can not fully commit himself to his wife as long as the idea of Celine remains in his memory. The years of separation only build up this legend of her in his mind, and the night becomes legendary. It's like she was his true love, and to accept his marriage would be settling for something less than what he really wants.

The end of Sunset has a great emotional payoff, and I feel like the last half of the movie really appeals to my Buffy sense, the interest in seeing characters explore angst. Buffy's was always a bit more epic than the stuff that Jesse and Celine go through, but it's the same basic principles. These characters have issues that develop for a while under the surface and then finally break out and have to be explored. If I had to compare Before Sunset to one Buffy episode, it would be Entropy, where not too much happens, but the characters have fallings out and comings together just based on what has happened in previous episodes, and the revelation of things that they'd been feeling.

But, the thing that makes the Before movies unique from a more traditional romance movie is the high level of intellectual discussion that they engage in. Jesse and Celine, more notably in the first movie, engage in a lot of really interesting discussions on big issues. They talk about their place within the universe, within society and in relation to other people. I found the scenes in Sunset that focused on Jesse's feeling of inadaquecy because he's not out there changing the world very interesting. Jesse is the sort of person who clearly has all these grand notions, but finds it tough to put them into practice when he's stuck in the lifestyle neccesitated by his marriage. His interest in Buddhist concepts reminds me of discussions I've had with Jordan, and his feeling of wanting to do something huge and earth changing, but instead getting caught up in the frequently mundane nature of day to day life reminds me of myself sometimes. I love the contrast between Jesse of 1995, who holds all these romantic ideals, but keeps pushing them off, and the Jesse of 2004, who feels like time has past him by, and it's too late to change things. This contrast is made even more interesting at the end of Sunset, which is much more pure and romantic than the ending of Sunrise, despite the veneer of cynicism over the movie.

Richard Linklater is the most talky director of anyone working in film today, but his movies aren't talky in the same way that Kevin Smith's or Quentin Tarantino's are. His talk isn't about being cool, or dropping pop culture references it's truly about communication, the communication of ideas. Starting with Slacker, which is basically the camera following a bunch of people around, and listening to them tell someone what's important to them. In the very first scene of his filmmaking career, Linklater himself appears, talking about parallel universes, and the vast changes that little differences in someone's action could have on the universe. I've had the idea that a world exists for every single possible action we could take at any possible time, in which case there would be an infinite number of worlds, and it was really cool to hear a similar idea on screen with Linklater.

Waking Life makes explicit the thesis of all Linklater's work, which is that the most meaningful connection that people can make is in a discussion with someone else, when you reveal your ideas and inner self. The blond woman talks about it, how language can represent ideas and concepts that would have been impossible for primitive people to convey, and that it is in discussing indefinable concepts, like love, that we find meaning. In my own life, I've found this to be true. A lot of my best memories are just of talking, about the universe, anything, talking which wasn't about passing the time, but about really conveying some deeply held beliefs, and debating them with others.

That's one of the things that made The Invisibles so special to me. Not only did it create a bunch of new ideas in my head, but it also allowed me to discuss these new concepts with other people who had read the book. The Invisibles served as a base from which we could go off to discuss many other things.

When I first saw Waking Life, I loved it, but I saw it as a collection disparate scenes. On a second viewing, and after many great discussions, I realized that the film was about the act of communication through discussion, and thus, every single scene was in fact contributing to the central theme. Before Sunrise/Sunset takes this theme and plays it out on a more personal level. It's crucial to Linklater's world that Jesse and Celine's relationship is not based on the physical, that's not what made it special, it's the emotional connection that they cultivated through their discussion. They presented a deep part of themselves to each other, connecting in a way that just doesn't happen that much. Jesse says it in the coffee shop scene in Sunset, that you think you'll meet a lot of people you connect with it, but you only meet a couple, and that's why he regrets letting Celine go. Sunset is only talk, the setting doesn't matter, they barely even touch each other, it's all about meeting on a mental level, with real dialogue, rather than just waiting for your turn to speak. That's what this film is about and it's what all of Linklater's best films are about, the meeting of minds to convey ideas.