Staff Picks: Movies
Staff-recommended viewing from the KPL catalog.
Well it’s that time again to remind lovers of books that their favorite characters and stories are never safe from the evil hands of casting directors, screenwriters and corporate honchos who are ruthless in their cinematic destruction of a good book. How many times have you burdened with guilt and cynicism peaked your head into a theater to see the bloody carnage and the two hour dismantling of every thing you ever loved about a book’s power to move you with its words, images and literary prowess? Well, for those of you who glance from time to time on Youtube or IMDB for the latest trailers associated with film adaptions, you know that in the near future that Cormac McCarthy’s award winning The Road and Audrey Niffenegger’s The Time Traveler’s Wife will soon hit the multiplex. From my vantage point, both films look as though their producers never quite got around to reading the books. Maybe I’ll be wrong about the movies but c’mon, Eric Bana as Henry the librarian and hammy explosions and action movie tropes. Puleeese. And least we not let HBO off the hook with their soon to ruin everything great about Raymond Chandler series Bored to Death. I hope that I'm wrong but there exists a long history of very bad adaptations in the dustbin filed away under "bad idea."
Book
The time traveler's wife : a novel
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There are times where days saunter along, one into the other, with few distinguishing characteristics and where inspirational interactions with the world are either muted or altogether absent. But then comes along a work of art, a photograph, a film, a poem that strikes you dead in your tracks and summons your mind, heart and attention to its power. For me, this is what life is about, the continuity of learning, where if one chooses to open themselves up to new experiences and previously unknown data, one will always find a kind of psychic renewal in such discoveries.
I was unaware of the work of photographer Sally Mann up until several days ago but on a whim, I checked out a documentary film about her life, family and work from the library. Mann’s photography has been largely hailed by art critics as some of the best photography in the nation. Time Magazine dubbed her “America’s Best Photographer in 2001.” What the documentary does so well is bring her family life into the frame so that we have a broader, more nuanced understanding of her creative influences, philosophical concerns and goals as an artist. Mann’s photography centers on both universal themes (life, mortality, family, love, hope) as well as regional specificities (Southern motifs, landscapes e.g.). Her work has been described as moody, ethereal, haunting, preternatural, and dream-like.
Once again, sometimes the rewards of learning derive rather simply by taking a chance, picking up a book or film that you know nothing about and finding along the way that life continues to surprise and inspire. This to me is what libraries are all about.
Movie
What Remains
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Having made its Broadway debut last fall, Billy Elliot: the Musical was the big winner at last night's Tony Awards ceremony, nearly sweeping the awards in the Musical categories, claiming 10 Tonys total.
The original film’s leap from screen to stage seems especially natural. Music and dance are crucial to the plot, in which the young title character pursues his dream of becoming a ballet dancer against the backdrop of the 1984 UK miners’ strike – and some of his family’s wishes. Billy’s fits of dancing are scored by pop classics by T. Rex, the Clash, and Paul Weller’s outfits the Jam and the Style Council, many of which are being heard through home stereo speakers and headphones as Billy lets himself go.
This more organic use of music is in sharp contrast to the stage production's numbers, written by lyricist Lee Hall, who wrote the original film, and composer Sir Elton John. Still, the spirit of the songs found in the original film can’t help but to have influenced those in the musical – especially since the lyricist has such a direct connection to the movie version, and the composer was a contemporary (and fast friend) of the most frequently heard musician on the film’s soundtrack, T. Rex’s Marc Bolan. A classically trained pianist who made his name as a glam rocker, John’s well suited to be involved in this particular musical production.
Whether or not a film version of the musical based on the original film will be made (à la Mel Brooks’ The Producers or John Waters’ Hairspray), the drama and joy found in the music and story of the original Billy Elliot will surely stir the cosmic dancer in viewers who haven't yet seen its award-winning stage incarnation.
Movie
Billy Elliot
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This Memorial Day weekend, classic war films will be seen on countless television screens across the country. At the start of Miracle at St. Anna - the startling 2008 film collaboration between writer James McBride (author of KPL’s 2005 Reading Together selection The Color of Water) and director Spike Lee – the epic war film The Longest Day runs on a World War II veteran’s TV set. This particular vet isn’t so gung ho upon seeing John Wayne, though – his own war experience as a member of the U.S. Army’s all-black 92nd Infantry Division (aka the Buffalo Soldiers) was much different than any that Hollywood was interested in portraying.
The film flashes back to the veteran’s harrowing journey behind enemy lines in war-torn Italy, as he and three fellow Buffalo Soldiers attempt to keep an orphaned boy, the only survivor of a village massacre at the hands of the Nazis, from being discovered. As they travel, not only do the soldiers have to deal with the racist propaganda the enemy uses to distract them (an Axis Sally broadcast during combat, Nazi propaganda posters employing black stereotypes), they still have to endure the explicit prejudice of their commanding officers and, on leave in the deep South, the murderous hatred of ungrateful citizens. In light of all the injustices heaped upon them, their sacrifices at this journey’s end seem especially heroic.
Though McBride and Lee turn the conventions of the epic war film inside-out, the look and structure of the film pay homage to many epic war films that came before. Lee is no stranger to epic filmmaking (see Malcolm X and When the Levees Broke), and though this is his first war film, it plays as though he’s made a dozen. While the film doesn’t glorify combat, it does recognize the unique responsibility of soldiers who put themselves on the line to defend freedoms threatened by force. That some soldiers might have been fighting for freedoms denied to them in their own country is astounding – that rare perspective makes Miracle at St. Anna a war film unlike any other.
Movie
Miracle at St. Anna
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Ingmar Bergman’s classic Wild Strawberries is an affectionately drawn portrait of nostalgic pining as the regrets of an aged doctor are exorcised through stark flashbacks and ominous dreams that force the film’s protagonist to rethink his life. Dr. Isak Borg sets out to trek across pastoral Sweden for the city of Lund, where he is to accept an honorary degree for his longtime commitment to medicine. Along the way, the doctor mines the psychic territory of his past by visiting seminal scenes of his life, many of which are painful recollections of regret and missed opportunity. By the end of the trip, Dr. Borg rediscovers a more meaningful sense of who he is as his inevitable death approaches. He will learn that the complicated paths of life are wrought with both beauty and disappointment. The final scene is art house cinema at its finest. Bergman’s other notable films are The Seventh Seal, Fanny and Alexander, and one of his most enigmatic films, Persona.
Movie
Essential art house. Wild strawberries [videorecording]
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Not quite cinema verite of old, but with the obligatory shakiness of a hand-held camera, Rachel Getting Married feels as though the film’s director (Jonathan Demme of Silence of the Lambs, Beloved, Philadelphia ) was provided unfiltered access to capture the intimate conversations, tragedies and joys of a dysfunctional family brought together to celebrate Rachel’s big day. What makes this film so visceral in its immediacy and kinetic energy is in large part due to how the film was shot and the way in which many of the scenes feel as though they were improvised or at the very least, minimally scripted and choreographed to allow the actors freedom to embody the naturalism of the moment. Though I would have preferred another actress as the rehab-prone enfant terrible (sorry Anne Hathaway fans), Rachel Getting Married’s strength as a film comes from the strong ensemble cast who did well to transform a rather stale plotline into a well-mannered and passable drama.
Movie
Rachel Getting Married
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Over the weekend I watched Slumdog Millionaire, English director Danny Boyle’s movie about a poor boy in Mumbai who wins millions on a game show but who is accused of cheating. The movie was the darling of 2009, garnering a boatload of awards, including nine Oscars, five Critics’ Choice, four Golden Globes and seven awards from the British Academy Film Awards. I liked Slumdog Millionaire. It isn’t Danny Boyle’s best work, but it may be his most ambitious. Nor is it the best movie for demonstrating child poverty in Mumbai. A better one is the heart-rending work from 1988 Salaam Bombay.
Danny Boyle creates atmosphere well. Slumdog’s gritty scenes of poverty and desperation reminded of his earlier and perhaps best film, Trainspotting, which follows the gritty, heroin-laced lives of five disaffected boys in Edinburgh.
I also couldn’t help but be reminded of Charles Dickens. I’ve been enjoying Masterpiece Theatre presentations of Dickens’ works over these last few months — David Copperfield, Oliver Twist, Little Dorrit, and The Old Curiosity Shop. Slumdog Millionaire is a story that Dickens could have written. The brother Salim in Slumdog Millionaire is a chip off the Artful Dodger in Oliver Twist. Both lead gangs of child criminals, both answer to dangerous men who manipulate and motivate the boys through their desire for material possessions.
Charles Dickens’ books offered strong commentary on social class and cast light on the awful state of child poverty. His books ultimately caused the enactment of child labor laws. While Slumdog Millionaire is a story that Dickens might have enjoyed, I also think it is one that would have made him sad and frustrated to see the plight of children in today’s world.
Movie
Slumdog Millionaire
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Roses in December is the heartbreaking tale of the murder of a young woman (Jean Donovan) who gave up her privilege, educational opportunities and a high paying job so as to serve the violently oppressed people of El Salvador during that nation's civil war of the 1970’s. It is also a film about the redemptive quality in serving a higher purpose beyond our inclination toward navel gazing and the struggle to locate both lasting peace within ourselves and the world afar by giving assistance to those denied vital resources, political power or access to justice. Also, learn how the Reagan Administration, staunch supporters of the brutal El Salvadoran military, worked to obstruct justice for the families of those murdered. A somber film but one that affirms the humanity of those who give of themselves to advance peace and justice.
Movie
Roses in December
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I'll admit it. I watched the WWF growing up. Nothing beat staying up late with your friends to see Hulk Hogan battle Rowdy Roddy Piper. So when I sat down to watch Mickey Rourke in his Oscar-nominated role in The Wrestler, I was ready for some action. Was I disappointed that the amount of brawling was limited to about 20 minutes? No way, because what I witnessed was one of the best movies of 2008. Rourke was amazing playing Randy "The Ram" Robinson, a former great trying to put his life back together after suffering a heart attack. Marisa Tomei plays an aging dancer trying to put her life together and Evan Rachel Wood acts as "The Ram's" estranged daughter. This heart wrenching story of a broken down wrestler is a well-crafted story of redemption and the pain it causes all involved.
Movie
The Wrestler
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Filmmaker and mother, Lori Benson, received a diagnosis of breast cancer and – on a suggestion from her filmmaker husband, Jonathon – decided to have friends film her experience. In Dear Talula, we, the viewers, get to see Benson’s struggles, decision-making, treatment, beautiful relationships with friends, family and one-year-old daughter, Talula. I urge you to take the time – just 34 minutes – to experience this inspiring documentary.
Ms. Benson also travels the country to speak at film screenings. It would be wonderful to see her in Kalamazoo someday.
Movie
Dear Talula
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