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Pleasantville Directed by Gary Ross Starring Tobey Maguire, Jeff Daniels, Joan Allen Distribution: New Line **** / A |
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I suspect that several of my close fellow film afficiandos were glad to see me trek away to the Toronto film festival this year, if only to shut me up for ten days and preventing me from firing off another deluge of drooling missives over the terrific initial trailer for Pleasantville. (Running over five minutes -- holy Toledo -- and essentially revealing the entire story, it's nonetheless the year's most charming and engaging trailer in my opinion: I've seen it draw a warmer audience reception during its fleeting running time than the entire unrelated feature-length film which it preceded.) I adore the film's cast -- Tobey Maguire was dynamite in The Ice Storm, William H. Macy deservedly cracked the recent Entertainment Weekly list of Hollywood's top contemporary actors, no American actor has been consistently better over the past three years than Joan Allen, and Reese Witherspoon .. well, goodness. Throw in the late great J.T. Walsh, and that's quite a collection of actors, all cast to perfection. I entered the screening expecting this light-hearted fairy tale to be a magical adventurous romp along the lines of the similarly-set Back To The Future, so it came as quite a surprise that the picture had much more depth than I'd anticipated, stretching its ambitious aim to explore sociological issues such as conformity and xenophobia amidst all the breezy commercial elements. Unlike the thinly-disguised malevolence which pervades recent screen utopias (The Truman Show's Seahaven, among others), entirely-wholesome Pleasantville is just that -- a genuinely innocent, idyllic venue where everything is in perfect equilibrium until the arrival of David (Mr. Maguire) and Jennifer (Ms. Witherspoon), which sets off a series of irrevocable changes and uncovers a surprising fascist core amongst the locals. These more thoughtful and provocative aspects don't override the sweet, whimsical nature of the flick -- screenwriter and first-time director Gary Ross (Dave, Big) merely gives them a fleeting (and occasionally detrimentally hasty) once-over -- but it's an intriguing and commendable approach to the narrative, adding a layer of complexity to otherwise sure-fire material. (The envelope is humorously pushed even further by introducing sex as a prime catalyst for the community's paradigm shift.) If Pleasantville is decidedly more risqué and more daring than Back To The Future, Mr. Ross' sure-handed direction is nonetheless positively Zemeckisian in nature, echoing an identical visual sense and satiric comic timing -- as in the Michael J. Fox vehicle, much of the picture's humour is elicited from well-staged anachronisms as the newcomers adjust to their new squeaky-clean world. (And to that end, the film introduces one particular idea involving Ms. Witherspoon's character evolution that I thought was terrific, and hadn't remotely anticipated -- it was quickly dropped, but a marvelous concept all the same.) The flick showcases its gorgeous visuals, not only with the obvious, everchanging use of colours as the mindset of the stagnant, black-and-white town begins to intersect with that of the contemporary world, but also in its basic shot composition and transitions. Wonderfully paced and featuring a splendid Randy Newman score and first-rate performances by its entire cast (I enjoyed Ms. Witherspoon and particularly Mr. Maguire, although Mr. Macy and Ms. Allen will probably attract the most attention), Pleasantville is a stirring, magical triumph -- though one hardly in need of an ill-advised climactic courtroom sequence.
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Rushmore Directed by Wes Anderson Starring Jason Schwartzman, Bill Murray, Olivia Williams Distribution: Touchstone *** ½ / A- |
Rushmore is a terrific fulfillment of the potential demonstrated by Wes Anderson and Owen Wilson in their feature debut, the quirky cult-fave Bottle Rocket. Creating a collection of memorable characters, from the leads right down to the minor supporting characters (at last -- a bully with a brogue!), and infusing their now-trademark warmhearted offbeat sensibilities in effective fashion, this is a truly original and very funny comedy which may prove to be an exceptional challenge for the marketing team at Touchstone -- too smart for a teen comedy, but too difficult to be casually perceived as anything else. Perhaps their smartest decision was to make the picture's unflappable young hero, Max Fischer (Jason Schwartzman, in a wholly commendable feature debut) fallible -- while almost ridiculously savvy and resourceful as he asserts his unfailingly precise and mannered presence into every scene without a hint of surface emotion, Max isn't perfect (in fact, despite his obvious intellect, he's one of the worst students at prestiguous Rushmore Academy), which thankfully lead him into some genuinely bizarre escapades. It's so much fun to watch him in action, the gears in his head churning away as he hatches some deviously ingenious and absurd new scheme, that one almost neglects in noticing just how good the chemistry is between him and his two counterparts -- Miss Cross (Olivia Williams), the new teacher whom he falls for, and Mr. Blume (Bill Murray), his mentor-turned-romantic rival. The picture's comedy is almost always on target, often hilariously so, and is briskly paced, aided by terrific usage of late 1960s British pop on the soundtrack which propels the flick forward. Mr. Anderson's direction is perfectly attuned to the requirements of the picture -- an early collection of shots of Max in his environment set the peculiar tone of the film most effectively, and the film virtually never stumbles. Well worth seeing, if only for the performances of Max's self-styled high school stageplays, which are probably the most elaborate and hysterical of their kind since The Addams Family's.In attendance: director/writer Wes Anderson, co-writer Owen Wilson
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Waking Ned Devine Directed by Kirk Jones Starring Ian Bannen, David Kelly Distribution: Fox Searchlight ** ½ / B- |
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Waking Ned Devine is an example of one of those warm-hearted crowdpleasing comedies that apparently work better on everyone else than I -- while I sat watching each comic bit unfold in obvious fashion, patiently drumming my fingers in my lap, the rest of the audience was in an uproar; I haven't been this out of sync with a festival crowd since Emma-Kate Croghan's Love And Other Catastrophes. Kirk Jones' lottery-scam film is being positioned by Fox Searchlight as this year's The Full Monty (and coincidentally, both films elicit mondo laughs from male nudity, though Monty used it as an actual plot element while Devine employs it for cheap guffaws), but the demographic on this flick is going to be an even more difficult marketing challenge than last year's surprise hit, given that the two leads are relatively obscure seniors. The plot, a humorous tale of deception and impersonation, is awfully conventional, but what I found taxing about the film was its sheer predictability -- you can list off every comic twist and turn in each sequence like clockwork -- and its repetitiveness at milking sight gags. (The flick constantly cuts back to a motorcycle shot during one segment, with increasingly diminishing returns.) Still, it's an agreeable little picture, buoyed by a blaring Irish-tinged score by Shaun Davey; I expect that it'll be warmly received when it's released later this year. The Full Monty this ain't, though. (Is it just me, or does Ian Bannen vaguely resemble Jack Lemmon?)In attendance: producer Glynis Murray, co-producer Neil Peplow
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Trance Directed by Michael Almereyda Starring Alison Elliott, Jared Harris, Christopher Walken Distribution: Trimark * ½ / D+ |
Trance is your typical straight-to-video calibre haunted house-type horror flick, albeit with a higher pedigree cast and some quality atmosphere generated by Michael Almereyda (Nadja); the sound design is of partiular distinction. Initially already fairly unpromising, the film quickly declines into sheer silliness by the time lead protagonists Nora (the tragically underappreciated Alison Elliott) and spouse Jim (Jared Harris, who follows Kevin Spacey's lead by performing an amusing Christopher Walken imitation) arrive at the immense labyrinth of a house in Ireland where they remain for the rest of the movie. Thankfully, the picture doesn't take its plot (featuring druids, witches, and doppelgangers -- oh my!) very seriously -- there are countless ironic, tongue-in-cheek one-liners issued, most of which are zinged by Mr. Harris (who gets bashed in the head so often during the proceedings that by the end he should realistically be brain-damaged). The audience in my screening, however, were laughing hardest at the dramatic plot twists -- not a good sign for this Trimark picture. (IMDb has this down under its shooting title, The Mummy.)
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The Book Of Life Directed by Hal Hartley Starring Martin Donovan, P.J. Harvey, Thomas Jay Ryan Distribution: none? *** / B |
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The Book Of Life, a 63-minute featurette by Hal Hartley, is a distinct piece of work; completely shot on digital video and then blown up to 35mm, the result is definitely not something that you'll see every day. Inventive, energetically paced and curiously relevant, it's an delightfully blasphemous movie which features some extremely funny lines and hilarious sight gags (Diehard Mac afficianados will undoubtedly be the most pleased) amidst the provocative philosophical banter. Thomas Jay Ryan is particularly wonderful as the snarling Satan, although Miho Nikaido's deadpan delivery is good for a handful of chuckles. Certainly not for all tastes (the stylistic visuals will be offputting to some), but I thoroughly enjoyed it.In attendance: producers Theirry Cajianut, Matthew Ayers, Caroline Benjo
