Wednesday, May 17, 2006
The Squid and the Whale (2005)
Apart from a few writing/directing gigs in the mid 90s, Noah Baumbach’s career really started with the co-writing of 2004’s Wes Anderson film, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, a quirky but oddly touching film that emoted different feelings than most others films. The Squid and the Whale evokes similar feelings of uneasy humour and dialogue that make watching the film an uncomfortable, yet intriguing experience. Baumbach once said, “I always viewed life as material for a movie” and true to his words, this film is partly based on his childhood in which he “was always plowing through… [novels] I wasn’t equipped to understand.” While The Squid and the Whale is not always easy to watch, the post-film discussions it can spark make it a worthy viewing.This film demonstrates divorce and its outcomes in a family of literati; they play tennis, read Kafka and engage in meta-ethical discussions of ‘dense’ novels. In the relatively short 80 minutes of film, brothers Walt and Frank come to terms with their parents’ divorce in different ways. Older brother Walt idolizes his father, Bernard (Jeff Daniels), who is too familiar a character; a self-proclaimed literati who manages to snub the rest of the uneducated population whilst keeping his nose in Dostoevsky and Nietzche. A belief in his own superiority is passed down to Walt who defends his father’s intellect, and shares his thoughts on life and love. How these thoughts negatively influence his attempts to woo a girl in his school is both funny and sad. There is also a theme of redemption and owning up to certain illusions of his own life that is a joy to see unfold by the end of the film. On the other side, younger brother Frank clings to his mother Joan (Laura Linney). Despite a playful and cheery exterior, Frank’s scenes of inner turmoil are amongst the hardest to watch and the most confusing for viewers. We come to realize early on that Frank is not part of the literati world; he is a philistine, which obviously has an adverse affect on his relationship with his father.
There are scenes that are strange, and a brutal honesty to the characters that is difficult to watch. It watches like a modern-day novel reads, full of strange occurrences and sickening acts that sound good in novels but come across as odd on film. At face value, The Squid and the Whale can be easily dismissed as an oddball flick, but in retrospect it is much deeper and more clever than one viewing can allow. This story is not only about the consequences of divorce, but a character study. There is a father (brilliantly played by Daniels) who deserves to be sucker punched, but who also is deserving of pity, for his narrow-mindedness and delusions of grandeur; an older son, whose blind submission needs awakening; a mother whose physical body needs sustenance; and a younger son,
fighting his own inner demons amongst the turmoil of divorce. Despite the oddities, The Squid and the Whale is worth watching for those willing to put their minds to work even after the credits roll. 
Sunday, May 14, 2006
Grizzly Man (2005)
There are two sorts of documentaries: those that serve to lecture on historical events in an objective manner, and those that serve to document the lives of specific peoples, who may not have had an impact on the history of the world, but who made an impact on the filmmaker who wanted to share such a story with the world. Werner Herzog’s Grizzly Man is not a tale of what is right or wrong, a guide of “what not to do”, nor is it one of a man who serves as an exemplary human being. Instead, this documentary serves as glimpse of Timothy Treadwell’s final summers living among the grizzlies in Alaska; this is a man who lived alone with some of nature’s most predatory beasts, and who managed to live among them for thirteen years before being slain by one in 2003. Edited down from hours of tape filmed by Treadwell himself (and for the last two years, his ‘girlfriend’ Amie Huguenard, who was also killed), Werner Herzog has managed to create a masterpiece in documentary film-making, skimming the fine line between devotion and insanity.There is a dualistic nature to this film: not only does it document the daily life of the grizzly bear, but it also serves as a study on the character of naturalist Timothy Treadwell. The result has been heated discussion amongst those who believed him to be completely out of touch with reality and those who respected him for the love he showed to the animals ‘he swore to protect’. My stance is somewhere in the middle, which is what Werner Herzog seems to have wanted by the end of his film: Timothy Treadwell was completely out of touch with reality, ignoring the obvious dangers of living in extreme proximity to the grizzly population; but one cannot help but admire his love and devotion for the animals, not to mention the fact that he was able to survive close encounters with them for thirteen years. There is a truly a streak of madness in the character of Timothy Treadwell, a trait that immediately related him to children at schools he would attend. His idiosyncrasies only act as a magnet to viewers. I, for one, could not help but admire his passions, despite acknowledging his delusions.
While the character of Timothy Treadwell acts as an immediate draw to the documentary, the editing skills of Werner Herzog and the original music by Richard Thompson craft a hauntingly beautiful portrait of the Alaskan wilderness. The footage caught on tape by Treadwell and Huguenard is some of the finest to be found of the grizzly population, and some scenes are simply astounding. Be it footage of bears fighting for a mate, playful foxes, or Timothy rambling his thoughts on life and love,
Grizzly Man never bores. While a few of the interviews conducted by Herzog for the purposes of this film could have been cut, the core footage leading up to the gruesome demise of Treadwell and Huguenard leaves never a dull moment. Brokeback Mountain (2005)
Celebrated as the “gay cowboy” movie that was rumoured to have almost swept the Oscars, Ang Lee’s adaptation of the short story by famed Canadian writer, E. Annie Proulx, is one of those few films in Hollywood that manages to stir up controversy – the last of note being 2004's The Passion of the Christ/Fahrenheit 9/11 duo. Whatever praise and condemnation fell upon Mel Gibson’s and Michael Moore's films is revisited upon Ang Lee’s film in a completely different respect. Brokeback Mountain is not a tale of political or religious debate, but one of romance and human rights. Can two men who fall in love be treated with dignity and without persecution by a community, or must they live their lives as shams, turning their backs on what their hearts desire? While certainly proving to serve as a stable platform for heated deliberation, Brokeback Mountain disappoints as a film.Starring Heath Ledger as Ennis Del Mar and Jake Gyllenhaal as Jack Twist, this film takes place in Texas and Wyoming in 1963, where the two men take up jobs as sheep-herders for one summer and enjoy a sexual relationship that neither expected. Following that year, both separate and start up families, full-well knowing of a void in their everyday lives. As the film progresses, the two meet up secretly and wonder whether to renew their past relationship and whether that would be possible at all. The premise is a good one, and moreso due to the difficulties of fulfilling a gay relationship in the 1960s, but the execution fails to live up to the premise. While Ennis’ story of the gay man who was killed for his ‘sins’ is a shocking reminder of the possible fate that could await them, the only fate for viewers is one of tedium. The slow pace mimics that of a previous Ang Lee film, The Ice Storm, but never manages to hold the viewer’s attention with substantial character development or conflicts to move the film along.
In the end, Brokeback Mountain has served its purpose as an excuse for Hollywood to pat itself on the back in spear-heading the liberal movement in the United States. What should have been considered a decent ‘day in the life’ story of two gay men in the 1960s was blown out of proportion by the modern-day political disputes regarding equal rights for gay partners. The movie never reaches the social impact of To Kill a Mockingbird, Inherit the Wind or even The Passion of the Christ, because it fails to display the insurmountable odds that gay men must have undergone in the 1960s. Instead, the close-mouthed character of Ennis just broods about from Texas to Wyoming in a trance. The purpose of Brokeback Mountain was as enigmatic as Ennis; was it to show prejudice in the face of love? If the purpose of the film was not to
set out such a message (as examples were few), but instead to create a romantic drama starring a gay couple, then it fails to keep up with the plethora of excellent romance/tragedy films already available. It is not a bad movie, but it certainly is not the eye-opener it could have been.