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brandon-radisic
Reviews
Happy Town (2010)
An ode to 1989
I've read the anxious and questioning boards discussing the possibilities that this show would be the next Twin Peaks, or any of its bastard offspring (Northern Exposure, American Gothic, Lost, Harpers Island, et al), and truly, the promos did give off a hint of all of these. What ABC in fact pulled off is an apology to David Lynch for axing Twin Peaks and for bungling what would have been the Mulholland Drive television show (instead of the film the footage became). ABC executives get nervous around geniuses like Lynch, but they want what they think is the essence of Lynch's work: quirky dialogue (check), real scenery shot from a surreal POV (check), music playing a huge role (check), stellar character actors in star-making roles (check), gruesome violence (check), and a mystery that's somehow less mysterious than everything and everyone around it (check). What killed Twin Peaks was not the introduction of the paranormal. In fact, Lynch introduced these elements in Season One, when the show was beyond critics' negativity and had a nation wrapped in plastic, eating doughnuts and pie, and waxing rhapsodic about coffee. What killed Twin Peaks, seriously, was solving Laura's murder. They could have stretched that saga out indefinitely, introducing more and more quirk and whimsy, more dark and gritty, more Audrey Horne, but the producers got nervous, forced a resolution, and ultimately dropped the ball. The film Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me was the only apology we ever got for that, and we can thank Lynch and the cast (Not ABC) for that.
Twenty years later, this show is an homage to Lynch, to Twin Peaks, to everything that could have been, yet with just enough of a fresh voice so as not to seem plagiaristic. It's an homage Tarantino-style, not a derivative rip-off. The moods belong to the show. The cadences are not those of Peaks, of Lost, of Harpers Island, etc. While flawed in several places, the story and writing are engaging enough and the entire cast are interesting enough to insure I'll return for the next episode. The real trick here lies in the writers, the directors, and especially ABC, continuing to unravel bit by bit, keeping the show taut and engaging, whilst never giving away anything too big just to "keep the audience". If ABC tosses this to the Saturday night dead zone the way they did to Twin Peaks (because Peaks was behind Knots Landing in ratings), or CBS did to Harpers Island (because Harpers Island really had poor ratings from the first episode onward. CBS at least gets credit for respecting the audience the show DID have by airing all the episodes. In an era of TIVO/DVR recordings, that's a noble thing indeed.) I refuse to call this just an homage to the first avant-garde network television series (Twin Peaks) until it proves itself so hollow. The respect paid to Lynch can be spotted in several places (a main character even says she's from Snoqualmie, Washington... the real town where several key places in Twin Peaks were filmed.) Here's hoping Happy Town finds its own counter-cultural mile markers.
Last Days (2005)
Watching paint dry to quality music...
If it did not contain a decent score, absolutely stunning art-house cinematography, and Asia Argento wandering on-screen for a bit, this would be the worst waste of film without Alan Smithee credited as director.
I've seen numerous films without a linear plot: Timecode, Slacker, Zabriskie Point, most of Larry Clark's ouevre... yet this movie lacks plot, characterization, dialogue for the most part, any thread of narrative, and any point aside from tossing pretty people on-screen in a lame attempt to re-examine the suicide of Kurt Cobain.
Gus Van Sant has made some truly gifted films: Drugstore Cowboy, My Own Private Idaho, and Elephant. He's had commercial hits with Good Will Hunting and Finding Forrester. I'm tossing this in the junk-pile alongside his Psycho re-make and his adaptation of Even Cowgirls Get the Blues. For Michael Pitt purists this is a novelty act... he's better used in The Dreamers, Murder By Numbers, and Hedwig & the Angry Inch.
I would ask for my ninety-some minutes back, but it taught me to never, ever, watch any film where Harmony Korine might be on-screen.
Dot the I (2003)
au contraire, to the negativity...I say Bravo
Having seen most of Bernal's films, or at least everything available in the US, I've grown to like him greatly as an actor, thus explaining my motivation for renting this. The description given on the jacket, added with the blurb equating it with Memento (which was a very entertaining mind-boggle), talked me in. Call it a two-for-two deal.
Reading through the commentary left by others, I'm troubled by the negativity being attached. Exactly when did it become a crime to invoke plot-twists as a story device? The last I knew, filmmakers such as Hitchcock and Preminger relied upon them incessantly. A twist in plot, if carried off well, can satisfy viewers and fire the imagination.
Personally, I find the romantic drama as a genre in dire need of a wake-up call. Films such as this one, Closer, Unfaithful, Wicker Park, and very few others, are daring to attempt something original, whether it be a more frank look at relationships, a less clichéd or sexist view of infidelity, or a new take on the love triangle... and by new I mean new in both this film and Wicker Park. Rather than recycle Shakespeare, Jane Austen, or An Affair To Remember for the forty-billionth time, the director and cast broke new ground.
This is not a perfect film, and really, honestly, who gets entertainment from "perfect" films? Admiration, yes. Respect, yes. Are perfect films fun though? That's an argument for a forum... I gave this an eight out of ten, with two points off for those imperfections. The three leads are solid; the story is clever and solid enough. The two points to perfection can easily be forgiven.
I had fun watching this movie.
Particles of Truth (2003)
As deep as Mike Leigh films, yet with stunning sensitivity
I watched this film on DVD, having never heard of it at all prior. My friend suggested it, knowing my love for dark, gritty, human dramas (I made her watch many Mike Leigh films and never shut up about Jennifer Jason Leigh, so she knows my tastes well). I was not let down.
The opening sequence is rather obnoxious, bordering on "artsy-by-numbers", but as soon as the first titles roll and the story begins unrolling, I found myself lost in the myopic world Elster has presented here. Her characters are eight deluded souls who lie to each other and lie to themselves, each longing for some moment of truth to justify their darkest hours. The central characters are Lilli and Morrison, a painter with a horrible childhood and a writer with more than his fair share of neuroses, and through their awakenings we meet his parents, her parents, her roommate, and the very creepy man her roommate has begun dating.
:::spoiler of sorts::: This film is not for the squeamish. There is violence against women. There is an intense confrontation between Lilli and her roommate's beau, which I found very difficult to sit through comfortably. Only Mysterious Skin has made me feel that level of unease lately. Both films deal with the darkness of lives tainted by others.
As vague as I'm being, because this movie should be felt, not described, I cannot insist strongly enough of what Elster has accomplished here. I can only hope she puts another film out in the future and it is as good as this. I'd hate to think only Jane Campion and Lisa Cholodenko were female auteurs capable of reproducing their visions from film to film with integrity, depth and authenticity.
Three Card Stud (1999)
It is certainly nice to find...
...one's name listed in the IMDb for a film I assisted the script of so many years ago. That was a fun short to be involved in, although we all found it rather sad that such genius went largely unnoticed.
I would love to know where all the surviving copies are, if any in fact exist. To live in Connecticut, so far removed from Hollywood (and yet surrounded by celebrities with real estate on the brain) and to discover your name on the best online source for movie info... wow. I need a moment.
Back to the movie in question, it was genius. Utter genius. Even the parts I didn't write.