ISLE OF DOGS Review

Isle of Dogs is the ninth feature film from director Wes Anderson and by this point, one knows prior to going into an Anderson film both what they will be getting and whether they're already in the bag for Anderson's style and how he will undoubtedly expand upon it. Needless to say, I was very much in the bag for the auteur's return to stop-motion animation after the delightful excursion that was 2009's Fantastic Mr. Fox. And so, the question then surpasses that of expectation dictating the perceived outcome of a certain film, but rather to be that of if there is already this acceptance of quality due to the understanding of the passion, time, and care committed to a project then just how good is it exactly? Where does it rank among the director's already impressive catalogue? As the credits rolled on the brief feeling, but wholly satisfying Isle of Dogs it became infinitely more clear than it had a moment earlier when still in the midst of the film that while this may be Anderson's most outright imaginative take on a motion picture it is also the one that is most vague in regards to its intentions. Maybe memories of Fantastic Mr. Fox escape me or maybe I missed a thesis that Isle of Dogs states throughout its rather straightforward narrative, but what seems most likely is the fact Anderson intended this to be as simple as it could possibly be so that individual movie-goers might make of it as they please with the filmmaker himself only taking credit to the extent the experience of watching his film brought excesses of escapism and joy. There isn't a single aspect of that previous sentence I would disagree with in terms of how easy it is to be swept up in the world of Isle of Dogs and how effortlessly enjoyable the movie is, but there is no sense of real emotional investment to be conjured either. It's not a mandate that Anderson's films be emotionally involving which is to say the meaning of his movies rarely take center stage, but often times it's hard to avoid such because of the natural investment made in the compelling characters. In Isle of Dogs we have a pack of abandoned canines and a twelve year-old boy who doesn't speak English whom Anderson gives no subtitles and thus there is something of a disconnect, but despite these small quibbles (and trust me, that's all they really are) Isle of Dogs is a meticulously crafted, beautifully rendered, and pitch perfect Wes Anderson movie that positions the water cooler conversations to not be about what the film is discussing, but what the film is; not what it says, but how it makes you feel.

First Trailer for Wes Anderson's ISLE OF DOGS

As someone who isn't necessarily a fan of the stop-motion aesthetic it is still hard to deny a Wes Anderson movie, whatever the medium he chooses to tell his typically delightful stories in. This is what might be so intriguing about this first trailer for the latest from Anderson though in that, while this is technically an animated film, Anderson is telling a story that is so seemingly odd and unique that it wouldn't be one you would inherently assume might benefit from being an animated feature though, as the clip plays on, is easy to see why Anderson chose to return to stop-motion for the first time since his twice Oscar-nominated 2009 effort Fantastic Mr. Fox. Since Fox, Anderson has made the equally fantastic Moonrise Kingdom and The Grand Budapest Hotel, each of which I've watched more times than I can count with the latter being a required viewing at least once a year. So, while I may not be one to typically flock to stop-motion animated films (with the exception of Laika, I'll give anything they do a shot) I am anxiously awaiting the latest from Wes Anderson simply because it is the latest from Wes Anderson. Speaking of the film itself, it is titled Isle of Dogs, and follows a young boy who ventures to an island in search of his own dog after an outbreak of dog attacks in a near-future Japan forcing all canines to be banished to live on a garbage-filled island hence, the title, the Isle of Dogs. Once on the island, the young boy comes across a pack of Alphas lead by Edward Norton‘s Rex. This will mark Norton's third collaboration with the director, but he isn't the only cast member who is returning to work with Anderson as the rest of the voice cast is made up of frequent collaborators such as Bill Murray, Jeff Goldblum, F. Murray Abraham, Tilda Swinton, and Bob Balaban while also featuring the talents of Bryan Cranston, Scarlett Johansson, Kunichi Nomura, Harvey Keitel, Akira Ito, Akira Takayama, Koyu Rankin, Yoko Ono, Courtney B. Vance, Greta Gerwig, Frances McDormand, and Liev Schrieber. Isle of Dogs is set to open on March 23, 2018.

20TH CENTURY WOMEN Review

Time is fleeting. This is a phrase heard countless times throughout our youth and throughout our life as a reminder to cherish the days we're living in as they'll be gone before we realize it. What we never realize though, is just how fleeting such times are when we're actually in them. The young man at the center of 20th Century Women, Jamie (Lucas Jade Zumann), was born in 1964 with the film opening in 1979. This makes Jamie a young fifteen as made even more apparent by his clear skin and boyish features that render him still a child in our minds rather than the adult he would have us believe he is becoming. My own father was born in 1964 and I can't say I've ever considered what the world looked like at the time of his most formative years. Hell, I don't know that I ever even realized it was the fall of 1980 when he turned sixteen-with only six years to go until he married my mother on the cusp of his twenty-second birthday. Sure, I've heard him tell stories of the things he did as a young boy with his older brother and neighborhood friends, but never did I take a minute to step back and look at the bigger picture; really consider the world they were living in at that time. With 20th Century Women writer/director Mike Mills (Beginners) explores these small, fleeting moments in time and reflects on what made what is presumed to be his mother, his mother. This isn't simply presented by the circumstances of her life, but by the circumstances of the time in which she was born. This is a fascinating way of perceiving things, but can also be rather dangerous considering the infinite possibilities one can imagine were they to consider who they or someone they know/love might have been were they born in a different time. This framing of lives through fleeting moments with the added perception of where each of the individuals chronicled came from and where they're going reveals a lot of truths, but mostly it works best by affirming what we don't always have enough time to acknowledge-that happiness comes most naturally when we're not actively trying to chase it.

JACKIE Review

There's a moment that comes forty-five or so minutes into Jackie where the former first lady boldly strides into her husband's quarters for the first time since his death and proceeds to play what she recalls as his favorite number from the musical, "Camelot," while trying on much of her wardrobe, sitting in chairs, smoking, sitting in rooms, and admiring swatches of material she no doubt had glorious plans for; soaking in all that will soon be gone, the tragedy, the full comprehension of what our titular character is going through just washing over Jackie herself-maybe for the first time since her husband's death with the full force of reality. There is a plethora of delicious dialogue in Noah Oppenheim's screenplay, but it is moments such as this-moments that require no words where director Pablo Larraín excels at cutting to the heart of what motivates our titular character, what allows her to push on with life, and most impressively what gives Jackie the ability of allowing the audience to understand an individual's challenging ideas and decisions in the midst of unfair circumstances that are also undoubtedly the worst days of her life. Jackie follows former first lady Jackie Kennedy (Natalie Portman) in the week following the assassination of her husband in 1963, but that is what is to be expected from a biographical film concerning Mrs. Kennedy. What one might not necessarily be prepared for, but that Jackie certainly delivers, is a closely compacted study of the balance a woman in her (singular) position must pull off when concerning themselves not only with the here and now, but what people will write about her and her husband for decades to come. The ideas of legacy and of shaping that legacy come easier to viewers who obviously know what the myths around the ever-regal Kennedy clan have come to be, but Jackie opens our eyes to the fact such myths have to be constructed in some form or fashion. People like to believe in fairy tales and, for Jackie, it seems the goal was always to purport this facade that embodied the noble and majestic lifestyle of her husband's favorite musical. While Jackie, the film, looks to more or less deconstruct those myths-revealing the thought process and truths behind the scenes-the film also weirdly works to build up that myth even more albeit with more of an eerie tone than that of the mysterious one Jackie might have preferred. 

Teaser Trailer for JACKIE Starring Natalie Portman

One of the bigger surprises to come out of the Toronto International Film Festival this year was the wave of positive reactions and praise in response to director Pablo Larraín's Jackie. The film that is a biopic of the First Lady to John F. Kennedy is said to tell a searingly personal account of Mrs. Kennedy's life in the hours and days following the assassination of her husband. Starring Natalie Portman in the titular role early word is the actor will easily land in the Best Actress category at this year's Academy Awards as Larraín has given Portman a platform on which to craft a version of this person that is more introspective and nuanced than any other portrayal we've seen of this First lady on screen before. And to be honest, this first look at the film for those of us not privileged enough to attend a major film festival is completely astonishing. The visual prowess of the film seems to mirror the light, but striking gravitas of its titular character while the score is as exquisite and classy as most would imagine the real Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis was. It is the narration of this teaser that really drives home the weight the film likely holds though, as the quote from the musical "Camelot," reinforces the idea of sudden change and the more sudden realizations that things will never be the same as they once were. In the stage play King Arthur speaks these words near the end as he comes to realize that the grand notions and the lofty ideas of his beloved Camelot are gone. The Jackie that is the subject of Larraín's film is very much in this same state of mind. By layering in these elements the teaser culminates with a barrage of imagery that figuratively resembles the walls of the Kennedy's Camelot falling down around them. It's more than effective-it is moving even and if Larraín's film can elicit as much of an emotional response as it does in this two-minute clip I can only imagine what the feature film experience might be like. I can't wait. Jackie also stars Billy Crudup, Peter Sarsgaard, Greta Gerwig, John Hurt, Richard E. Grant, John Carroll Lynch, and opens on December 2nd, 2016.

MAGGIE'S PLAN Review

Maggie's plan is a little bit of a gimmick and that is to say the plan that our titular character comes up with and not the film itself. Despite the credentials of the cast and creators what we get in this new film from writer/director Rebecca Miller (The Ballad of Jack and Rose) is something akin to a Noah Baumbach picture (and therefore, by default, a Woody Allen picture) with more of a plot device to drive the characters rather than that of an engaging premise. The titular plan though, as gimmicky as it can sometimes feel, isn't the star of the movie and thus is what saves Maggie's Plan from completely discrediting itself instead allowing it to turn into the insightful, funny, and rather poignant piece it always seemed destined to be based on those aforementioned credentials. When it comes to smaller, independent features that focus largely on intellectuals and their need to create drama and conflict so as to drive their own creativity most can be pretentious without holding any actual water no matter how compelling or precise the dialogue. Maggie's Plan walks this line skillfully, beginning as a film that would fall squarely into the genre of "artists supposedly making great art based on their own lives that we now find appealing because we're watching a movie about them," but somehow manages to become more about the characters than the thickening plot that is driving them. It's a very "movie-like" set-up for a movie that doesn't feel as artificial as said set-up. That isn't to say Maggie's Plan should be one thing because it seems like it should be (a talkie indie drama), but that it turns out it very much does want to be a certain type of thing (a talkie indie drama) as well as a few other things (a screwball/melodrama) that makes the final product feel forced if not still mostly coherent. As stated earlier though, it is not the plotting or even the sometimes strained dialogue that is the driving force behind the film, but rather the people who begin as archetypal academics and are humanized due largely to their ideas and self-awareness (or lack thereof) to such an extent that by the end of the film it's easy to forgive the bipolar tone their movie carries.

FRANCES HA Review

Frances Ha is all about growing up and in every sense of that phrase I feel like I can relate to what is taking place in this film. Given, I don’t live in New York and am not currently struggling to pay rent I can still understand coming to the point where the present is being forced to become more like the past and the aspirations you’ve had since childhood are approaching do or die time. It is a scary period in life where you truly believe you are determining what the rest of your life will be like and sometimes the prospects of that aren’t exactly on the positive side of things. Whether or not this turns out to be true or not is both unknowable to myself and Frances and the film does a fine job of conveying her anxiousness in not knowing where she will end up. She is yearning to know that her reality will meet her goals, but the constant fear of that not happening looms over her day to day life. It is something that is only escalated by the apparent ease with which all of her friends are dealing with this process. This also leads to the film unearthing something more than these typical issues of trying to find one’s self and carve out a place in the world, but also a layer of having to deal with relationships and the growth of friendship even if that means you are growing apart. The film deals specifically with that kind of relationship between girlfriends who view one another as family and that point in time where they have to essentially break up from constantly hanging out with one another and find themselves in relationships with guys that might eventually produce their own families. When one friend begins to make this transition and the other doesn’t it creates an awkward situation for the latter friend to fall into. That is where we find Greta Gerwig’s Frances as the film eases us into her life and gives us a lovely and quirky little slice of life that is just as charming and authentic as the titular character.

TO ROME WITH LOVE Review

I guess Woody Allen was slightly insulted in 2006 when he wasn't asked to direct one of the shorts in the compilation tribute to the city of lights titled Paris, je t'aime. There were plenty of high-class directors that contributed to the project and it happened right on the cusp of Mr. Allen's tour of Europe. In not getting to attribute a short film to the collection he seems to have decided to create a film of shorts himself. In his follow up to last years wildly successful Midnight in Paris Allen has returned to his usual state of conveying his opinion through typical, if not farcical situations. Whereas last year and every once in a while throughout his consistent career Allen will diverge from his beaten path and deliver a fantastic story that mixes the writer/director's combination of wit and criticism with a story that on a different level than most, connects to its audience. In the ethics of seeming to work non stop Allen fills the gaps between these sparks of genius with meditations on the current state of society and popular culture among other things. Allen has always been known for his insecure yet intellectual persona and he applies that not only in the character he himself portrays here but into each of the four stories that is told in To Rome with Love. While overall the film does in fact appear to be several short films spliced together to perpetrate as a feature it is actually a nicely paced piece of fun to watch that is moved along by the diverse bits of casting Allen has put together here. I can understand where many critics are coming from when they find this to be "lesser Woody Allen" but I found it to be quite wonderful, a nice distraction in the summer months, if only slightly disappointing after such a higher level of imagination he delivered to us last year.

From Left: Phyllis (Judy Davis) Jerry (Woody Allen) Hayley
(Alison Pill) and her fiance Michelangelo (Flavio Parenti)
enjoy a night of Opera from Michelangelo's father.

To Rome with Love tells four different accounts of people living in or visiting the beautiful city of fountains as each experiences an affinity for the city and for another newly acquired aspect of their lives. Whether it be a close encounter with new found celebrity in an attempt to illustrate the current state of the rich and famous who relish in the life for the reasons of being rich and famous or to examine and re-live the never changing landscape with which free-spirited, college-aged kids approach such a complex emotion as love. There is the situation in which Allen places himself as a father and husband to wife Phyllis (Judy Davis) as they have just arrived in Rome to meet their future son-in-law and his family. Allen has gathered Paris alum Alison Pill to play his daughter and in meeting her fiance Michelangelo (Flavio Parenti) and his father sees the opportunity to relive his glory days and come back out of retirement as an opera director as he finds a hidden talent in Michelangelo's father. Then there is the least explored story that concerns a young, rather square couple who venture off on separate romantic encounters that are meant to teach them a thing or two about their own. Penelope Cruz shows up for a bit part that is really a bit of fun, but while her excerpt might be the least explored it is the storyline that involves Roberto Benigni as a middle class, run of the mill man who gains instant stardom for seemingly no reason that falls the most flat due to lack of support. There is not much in the way of story here, but more an examination of the effects of celebrity and how fast fads come and go. Allen approaches each scenario as if it were a stand up comedy routine and blesses each with snappy dialogue that is delivered perfectly by his understanding cast.

John (Alec Baldwin) and Jack (Jesse Eisenberg)
reminisce together on love and deception.

The positive light the film does shine is that it knows how to balance its non-intersecting stories well. Allen knows where the most intrigue lies and doesn't want to waste the time exploring each of these equally. He justifiably wants to present a full picture and though many will likely attest to the fact that it seems to be trying too hard and ends up being mostly forgettable. I won't argue with that, I will likely never set my eyes on To Rome with Love again and I don't really have an issue with that. It was a nice, fanciful peace of writing with amusing characters and situations, but nothing that I will feel the need to re-visit. That is not to say it isn't worth seeing once though. And if there is one particular reason to venture out of your way to see the film it would be the plot line involving an architect named John (Alec Baldwin) who is in Rome with friends, but essentially stumbles on a bit of nostalgia in attempting to re-live his youth. The set-up is made to where he meets a young man in a similar situation as he in his early twenty's. At first the relationship is accepted as something completely based in reality, but here is also where Allen's charm as an inventive comedic writer comes in. It soon becomes apparent that Jack (Jesse Eisenberg) is the actual younger version of John. John travels through his summer in Rome with Jack as a guide for re-living the foolishness with which he seems to have let what could have potentially been something real go for a fling with a wispy wannabe actress that impressed him with her abbreviated knowledge of all things he loved. As the steady girlfriend Greta Gerwig is underused and as her confident, supposedly sexually enticing friend Ellen Page is miscast. Page is usually a quirky charmer and I expected her persona to fit in well with Allen's style, but the roles should have been reversed here with the Gerwig role being more fleshed out. Allen let the bigger name take the bigger role instead of having the better actress for the part have a shot at it.

Anna (Penelope Cruz) becomes an unnecessary
distraction for a young married man in
To Rome with Love. 

Still, for all of its seeming missteps To Rome with Love succeeds in being an entertaining and sweet way to spend two hours. The film moves along at a brisk pace cutting inbetween the four stories and never lets us feel like we'd rather be watching more of another's than the one we are watching in the moment. Allen focuses on his own and Baldwin's progressions with growing older, reflecting on where they've been and what they've done while side noting the Benigni and Cruz plots for easy laughs and his own thoughts and opinions on celebrities and how they act, but more interestingly how they are regarded by everyone else in today's society. Though the point is driven home with some funny results you won't help but feel like it might have all been a bit unnecessary as neither of the scenarios bring us any real character arc or story. We can argue the two lovers come to realize what their soulless marriage has been missing and that Benigni's character comes to realize what is really important in his life. These are stereotypical lessons at the very least though and not usually trappings Woody Allen will let himself fall into. This off balance kilter between his two themes takes away from the overall impression the film leaves, but hey, Mr. Allen is getting close to 80 and is likely not going to be making many more films, if the guy wants to say something or make a point in a film he has certainly earned the right to do so. I'm not gonna get overly upset if we get a side note about about something the director finds to be interesting, especially if its as pleasantly funny as what he has written for us here.

                         

TO ROME WITH LOVE Review

I guess Woody Allen was slightly insulted in 2006 when he wasn't asked to direct one of the shorts in the compilation tribute to the city of lights titled Paris, je t'aime. There were plenty of high-class directors that contributed to the project and it happened right on the cusp of Mr. Allen's tour of Europe. In not getting to attribute a short film to the collection he seems to have decided to create a film of shorts himself. In his follow up to last years wildly successful Midnight in Paris Allen has returned to his usual state of conveying his opinion through typical, if not farcical situations. Whereas last year and every once in a while throughout his consistent career Allen will diverge from his beaten path and deliver a fantastic story that mixes the writer/director's combination of wit and criticism with a story that on a different level than most, connects to its audience. In the ethics of seeming to work non stop Allen fills the gaps between these sparks of genius with meditations on the current state of society and popular culture among other things. Allen has always been known for his insecure yet intellectual persona and he applies that not only in the character he himself portrays here but into each of the four stories that is told in To Rome with Love. While overall the film does in fact appear to be several short films spliced together to perpetrate as a feature it is actually a nicely paced piece of fun to watch that is moved along by the diverse bits of casting Allen has put together here. I can understand where many critics are coming from when they find this to be "lesser Woody Allen" but I found it to be quite wonderful, a nice distraction in the summer months, if only slightly disappointing after such a higher level of imagination he delivered to us last year.