Hey folks, Harry here... I don't know how you can claim to be a movie fan if reading the following doesn't give you a severe itch to see "dot the i" and CONFIDENCE... of course seeing A DECADE UNDER THE INFLUENCE a film about seventies filmmaking... well, that goes without saying. However, those first two... the reviews of them below give me a hankering to see them something fierce. Here ya go...
Hey Harry,
Back with another four reviews from Sundance. Of all the films I have seen
thus far, the majority of these reviews were the hardest to write since they
rely on what the viewer doesn't and shouldn't know about the film. Lets hope
that when these movies get distributed they don't have trailers that give
everything away, so the rest of you can enjoy these films as much as I did.
Here are my takes on It's All About Love, dot the i, A Decade Under the
Influence, and Confidence.
It’s All About Love (3 out of 5)
Director – Thomas Vinterberg
Writer – Mogens Rukov and Thomas Vinterberg
Cast – Clair Danes, Joaquin Phoenix, and Sean Penn
It’s All About Love is one unusual love story set in the future with enough beautiful cinematography that saves it from being mediocre.
In the age of flash ice ages and gravity loss, John (Joaquin Phoenix) heads back to New York City to have his world-famous ice-skating wife Elena (Claire Danes) finally sign their divorce papers. The idea of two people splitting up is more dramatic to those knowing the two, since many people in the future who carry grief and loneliness can catch a fatal disease that freezes the heart. John begins to suspect something is out of the ordinary however, when a plan is discovered involving a business conspiracy that could endanger the lives of both of them. To say any more would most likely be against the filmmakers’ wishes, so I shall stop here before unraveling anymore.
The love story at the core of the film is honestly not nearly as interesting as the events going on around them. The views of the future are very interesting and how most of these characters are already used to living and dealing with these events, the films life really belongs here with all its cleverness. Days happen throughout the year where all water may freeze or a snowstorm will cover the entire world. People will collapse from a broken, frozen heart but others are so used to it that they will just walk over these people knowing that no help can be provided. John’s brother (Sean Penn) is also traveling over the world in an airplane to give his theories and thoughts on everything going on around him that could be a film of its own.
Joaquin Phoenix has always been an interesting actor to me and he is still very interesting here. It is impressive to see scenes with him that he takes in such a subtle manner but at the same time he can still be very intense. Claire Danes seems to have trouble with her characters accent from time to time but overall she pulls the role off pretty well. It is hard to talk about this character without giving anything away but it is a very complex role and it is pretty impressive to see the later scenes in the movie with her.
But the real star of the film is the cinematography. This is one beautiful film to look at. Those turned off by its heavy amount of science fiction will most likely want to stay and just look at the screen in awe. Here, the film reminds me a lot of Gattaca; but this is even more impressive.
Overall, I would recommend It’s All About Love to viewers more
interested in the technical aspects of filmmaking instead of those interested
in its narrative.
dot the i (4.5 out of 5)
Writer/Director – Matthew Parkhill
Cast – Gael Garcia Bernal, Natalia Verbeke, and James d’Arcy
Wow. This is one of the most fun and clever films I have seen in quite some time.
dot the i opens with Barnaby (James d’Arcy) proposing to his girlfriend Carmen (Natalia Verbeke) after a wonderful five months of dating. He puts an onion ring around her finger and the romance between them appears that it could be sweet and everlasting. At her bachelorette party, Carmen is told by a waiter in the restaurant that it is an old French tradition to kiss one last man before marriage to give up single life once and for all. Looking across her own table, she chooses a Brazilian actor named Kit (Gael Garcia Bernal) as her last kiss and something happens between them that makes both of their heads almost spinning in love. Kit tries persuading Carmen that he wants to spend one day with her since she will soon have a husband that gets to spend the rest of her life with, but Carmen wishes to not screw anything up with her marriage. What follows turns a charming and humorous movie into a dark and disturbing film that will make any man in attendance happy that his girlfriend dragged him into seeing it thinking it was just a romantic comedy.
Words of praise have to serve for all the cast members and Matthew Parkhill, the writer and director of the film. This is Parkhill’s film debut and many filmmakers would kill to have a movie that plays so well with an audience as this one does. Both Gael Garcia Bernal and James d’Arcy are really great here and both of them may not be who they appear to be at the beginning of the film. Natalia Verbeke so charming and sexy that she could very well be a household name if she makes the right career moves in the future as she did here.
The only flaw I had with this film is the ending. To give away anything that happens would be a crime, but one scene goes on for so long that its attempt at trying to show off how clever the film is seems to expect that the audience would have no intelligence to gasp such a thing. I am a fan of films with twist endings that can really impress you in the end, but I do get annoyed when every little thing throughout the entire movie is rehashed to fully try and explain the films wit when all it really is doing is saving the viewer the fun of seeing the film for a second time and looking at it from a different perspective. I was disappointed when Vanilla Sky did the same thing, but in both cases it still is a good film in the long run.
Having said that, dot the i is still one of the best films I have seen
so far at this festival and everyone needs to be on the watch for this movie in
the future.
A Decade Under the Influence (3.5 out of 5)
Director – Richard LaGravenese and Ted Demme
A Decade Under the Influence is a true delight for any fan of 70s cinema.
This documentary begins with the demand viewers had as the 60s were coming to an end and something new in American cinema needed to happen. Big Hollywood love stories and epics were no longer what people wanted to see. Instead, films like Easy Rider and Taxi Driver began to flourish, giving perspectives on our society that had moviegoers looking in the direction of cinema that they were relating to. This was the time that directors such as Martin Scorsese, William Friedkin, and Francis Ford Coppola began to flourish with critical praise and it will be a decade of true influence for any upcoming filmmaker.
Film clips throughout the documentary show off some of the greatest scenes in movies ever, ranging from Woody Allen arguing in the film line in Annie Hall to Jack Nicholson looking at a blank television scene but coming alive as a sports announcer in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Yes, these are all moments that will bring a smile on the face of any film lover and the interviews throughout are also interesting and funny. If it weren’t for The Kid Stays in the Picture released last year at Sundance, covering a lot of the same material better, I would have given Decade a higher grade.
For anyone interested in wanting to relive one of the greatest decades
of American cinema, you may not need to look any further.
Confidence (4 out of 5)
Director – James Foley
Writer – Doug Jung
Cast – Edward Burns, Rachel Weisz, Dustin Hoffman, Andy Garcia, Paul Glamatti, and Luis Guzman
Confidence is filled with so many twists and turns at such a fast pace that a bathroom break during its hour and a half running time would be completely unacceptable.
Jake Vig (Ed Burns) is a con man far ahead of his game. His jobs are thought out like every possibility in a chess game that there is no way he will screw anything up and always come away with money. When he gets away with 150,000 dollars that belong to “The King” (Dustin Hoffman), one of his crew is whacked and he is brought in to make a deal with the man himself. A heist is in the making with a new crew assembled, and the characters are always one step ahead of the audience the entire way through.
The ensemble cast here is a joy to watch. Edward Burns is a fine leading man and he holds his own very well with the rest of the actors. Rachel Weisz, Luis Gusman, and Andy Garcia are all a lot of fun but it is Dustin Hoffman that turns in another insane performance that only he could pull off. A few days ago I thought Mel Gibson in The Singing Detective was having the most enjoyable time with a character, but Hoffman is equally impressive and his fifteen-minute performance is enough to satisfy anyone. Director James Foley moves things at such a brisk pace that the clever screenplay by Doug Jung might not be fully credited until repeated viewings.
Some scenes throughout the film are a bit distracting and don’t seem to work at all until the resolution. At times, one questions why one character doesn’t kill enough at a given point. For example, one of the more intense scenes involves one person to pick up their cell phone and screw the person over who is standing right next to them with a pool stick in their hands. The most annoying problem is during the start of the film, the protagonist is seen with a gun to his head as he recaps everything that has led up to this point, and throughout the duration of the film we keep cutting back to this scene as he continues to ramble on as the man behind him seems to have nothing better to do than listen to everything he says. These may be minor and nitpicking problems to some viewers, but they were certainly distracting for me.
But for anyone who likes a clever and intelligent heist flick, Confidence is right up your alley.
Sadly no big stars to report here. Matthew Parkhill was the only one available for a q&a session after any of the showings of these films I attended. Thankfully, his q&a was one of the longest I have sat through, going on for almost forty five minutes after dot the i answering any and all questions viewers had. I shall return late Friday night for reviews on 28 Days Later, Nightstalker, and hopefully Pipe Dreams.
Take Care,
Castor
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