Meek's Cutoff, Poetry, and Circumstance are a few of the films reviewed this week. I took a look at a couple 2011 releases that were some of the best I've seen of the year. Also included are a couple films on social issues, one is physician-assisted suicide, and the other is gay rights in Iran. Only one was successful. Many many more 2011 movies coming up.
How to Die in Oregon (Peter Richardson, USA, 2011): Oregon was the first state in the nation to allow physician-assisted suicide for terminally ill patients. Not only was Oregon the first state in the country, but at the time physician-assisted suicide was only legal in two other countries in the whole world. How to Die in Oregon is a documentary that focuses on those who have chosen to die and their experiences. The movie opens with a man drinking the fatal mix of drugs that will take his life away. We see the man drink it and then close his eyes. This gives you a hint at how unflinching and brutal this movie is, it never shies away from confronting the brutal parts of making a decision as serious as ending your life. People in this film talk about death so much that it would be hard for anyone to be unmoved by these people.
The film leaves you asking important questions about life and death, and at the very least, gives you an understanding of how people make decisions like this. The movie does have a certain viewpoint about the issue, there's maybe one scene that centers on a protest against the proposed Death with Dignity law in neighboring Washington state, but more importantly there is a portion of the movie in which one of the main characters lives past her doctor-issued expiration date, and the audience, or at least I, realized that sometimes a terminally ill patient may not always be a terminally ill patient. If you want a completely objective account about the law itself, this is not your movie. But the movie works very well as a work of humanity, with a bit on the side about the passing of the same law in Washington state (I wish there was a better coordination of the two aspects of the film). You won't change your mind about what you believe about this political issue, but you'll certainly understand life a bit better.
Grade: B+
Le Quattro Volte (Michelangelo Frammartino, Italy, 2011): From human to animal to vegetable to mineral. The transmigration of the soul through the elements, that is the circle of life in this almost completely dialogue-free and meditative film. We start with an old man who takes care of some goats, and as he passes, we switch perspectives (or possibly continuing the trajectory of the soul of the old man) to a baby goat. After the goat seems to lose its way from the herd, we center on a tall tree, the tree is then cut down and used to make coal. This is the complete 88-minutes of this film, and it sounds very much like some sort of art installation, but Frammartino finds a way to mesmerize with his attention to miniscule details and even light humor. The film captures precious moments between animals, humans, minerals, and plant life. It definitely helps that the film is set in a small Italian town that feels exactly like what you think a small town in Italy would feel like.
Because the film has no dialogue, you frequently find yourself thinking about what is transpiring on screen, and also not on screen. The section following the baby goat is certainly the one that is the most mesmerizing because we see the life of a goat that is being scripted but is also very real. It invites us to think about the lives of these animals in a way we don't usually do. The other segments, most especially the later segments that center on the tree and the charcoal get a bit slow and are not quite as mesmerizing as the first half of the movie. While the wonder of the movie may not completely come across while watching, after you are finished when you think about nature and life and how we as humans relate to it all, it becomes almost revelatory. Le Quattro Volte is most certainly not a film for everyone, but for those who can sit through an spiritual and natural adventure of a movie will certainly find some incredibly redeeming qualities in this quiet, meditative, and spiritual film.
Grade: B
Poetry (Lee Chang-dong, South Korea, 2011): The opening of the movie is set in a setting of natural postcard beauty, there are trees and there is a slow-flowing river. But in the river there is something floating. The camera slowly zooms in, and it is revealed to be a body. This opening scene displays the narrative trajectory of this film: evils, flaws, and horrible things always seem to taint the most beautiful of people and environments, but in the end, those flaws in the beauty of the world are what enable us to truly grasp what our world is. In Poetry we follow a jolly old woman who discovers that she is displaying symptoms of early stages of Alzheimer's, she is beginning to forget words. She enrolls in a poetry class, possibly to make sure she's actually alright. But as she tries to find the inspiration for her first poem, she finds out that her grandson, who is living with her, was involved in the murder and rape of a young girl (the same girl we saw in the beginning of the film).
As the old lady struggles with finding poetic inspiration, partly because of her Alzheimer's and partly because of the horrible situation she is in, she seems to lose faith in the world a bit. The movie is bleak, but the story goes into deep and honest feelings about life. It goes deep into the theme of beauty and disappointment and in the process we witness an incredibly poignant tale. The screenplay won the best screenplay award at last years Cannes Film Festival and it certainly deserved that award. It is maybe a bit too long, but length in a movie this good never really is that much of a flaw. I have not yet seen Lee Chang Dong's last couple movies but this movie is certainly one that deserves any and all recognition it's been getting (which hasn't been enough in my opinion). Before I started the film, I thought that any movie named "poetry" would have a lot to live up to, but to my surprise I found Poetry to truly and definitely live up to its title.
Grade: A-
Circumstance (Maryam Keshavaraz, France/USA/Iran, 2011): I don't have anything against filmmakers who grew up in the West making movies about third world countries, but so far it seems that most of the time the efforts by these mostly American filmmakers does not create positive results. Sin Nombre, which is a Spanish-language film set in Mexico directed by an American, and Circumstance, a film in Farsi set in Iran directed by and starring Americans of Iranian descent, are two recent examples of this. In both films the socio-political issues and themes in the movie are catered specifically to American audiences and highlight the main issues that Americans connect with the country. In Sin Nombre it is illegal immigration and gang violence, and in Circumstance it is fundamental Islam taking away the rights of women and homosexuals. Unfortuantely, Circumstance commits another sin by oversimplifying the issue.
The film centers on a lesbian relationship between two best friends. The relationship frequently falls into eroticism that is supposed to show that these two girls are very passionate, but really does nothing except show a couple good-looking girls in action and highlights how hard the movie tries in order to be subversive. The way the film oversimplifies the issue is mainly through a character that is the brother of one of the girls. He's a reformed drug addict who know has turned into an extremist and a member of Iran's morality police. He's a character who seems to a much too convenient villain, and a character whose own thought process seems to be completely ignored. If you can't tell already, this is not a subtle movie at all and in later portions of the film the movie delves far too deeply into melodramatic material. The issue at the center of the film is definitely an important issue worth pondering, but the movie is far too simple and explores the true reality of the homosexual situation in Iran with eyes that are much too Western.
Grade: D+
Meek's Cutoff (Kelly Reichardt, USA, 2011): Many describe this film as a revisionist western, and there's certainly justification for calling it that, but if it is a revisionist western, then Meek's Cutoff is the most honest and realistic revisionist western ever made. It is a movie in which so much time and effort seems to have been spent on recreating the pre-Civil War west, from the flimsy wagons to the period era clothes to the locations to the day-to-day hardships written into the script, all of it feels completely real. Like Kelly Reichardt's previous films, Old Joy, and Wendy and Lucy, the film is sparse and patient and doesn't have much of a story. But the perfectly composed frames and the naturally lit scenes help to give the film a completely mesmerizing feeling, and that's much more effective than any contrived story would be in getting the audience to understand these characters and the effect the very important setting has on them.
Two of the most noticeable elements of the movie are two seemingly contradictory elements. First there is the perfectly captured western setting with wide and endless landscapes. But then, we notice that the film is in a 1.33:1 aspect ratio, which is almost a complete square, instead of the normal wide screen (1.69:1). One of the joys of the western are the amazing landscapes, and Reichardt and her crew do one of the best jobs I've ever seen at capturing the beautiful and serene landscapes that also happen to contribute to the excruciating hardships that so many had to experience crossing them. So it is at first odd that Reichardt would choose to hide away so much of her canvass, but by the end of the movie it is evident that Reichardt has brilliantly used the aspect ratio as a way to make the audience feel just as claustrophobic as the characters, primarily the women with their face covered bonnets. That claustrophic feeling is one of the greatest accomplishments by Reichardt in this film. She takes this expansive landscape and makes it feel so closed and limiting, which is very true to the feelings of the lost characters. Reichardt is one of the best directors the U.S. has to offer, and in this film she takes an American-invented genre and reinvents. Not only is the film meticulously authentic and beautiful in its visuals, but the haunting and mysterious feeling it gives off is completely unique to the genre.
Grade: A-
Boardwalk Empire: Season Two (Terrence Winter, USA, 2011): The first season of Boardwalk Empire was a slow burn that had a lot of quality scenes but didn't end up doing much exciting until the last few episodes. I enjoyed it quite a bit, but did not find it truly great. The second season most certainly comes closer to being great. Once again the second season is a slow burn and it is definitely most rewarding as a whole or as individual scenes rather than episode by episode, but this season was more exciting and the story-line felt more straightforward, rather than the multiple story-lines running at the same time feel that the show had more of in the first season. The first season had to set up Nucky's establishment and set up his enemies. This second season starts with his friends turning into his enemies, and the middle men that were helping him out in the first season going against him. This season has ended up being the story of Jimmy Darmody. He's a war veteran who views Nucky as a father figure, and his business partners (and his own ambition) motivate him to sacrifice that relationship with Nucky and overtake him to become the king of Atlantic City. It's not only him, but also some of the others who were lower ranked in the first season try to get in on some of the action themselves without consent from the big boys of the first season like Arnold Rothstein. There's a line in in which someone's says to Nucky, "the pups have grown fangs." Every gangster wants only to go up, and this season showed how everyone tries but not everyone makes it.
While Nucky is getting kicked out of his own city, he is discovering who his true friends are. That leads to one of the more interesting parts of the second half of this season and something that will certainly be a big issue in the third, his girlfriend/partner Margaret Schroeder. From the very beginning we know Margaret is a good-hearted person who is an educated and moral person, and we see her "partnership" with Nucky, the man who had her abusive husband murdered, as a low point for her. This season she questions whether or not being with Nucky is worth it all. Nucky is a person who keeps himself out of the dirty side of his business as much as possible to keep his conscience clear and so he has plausible deniability. But for his wife, her conscience has already been infiltrated by morality. That conflict between the straight path and the evil path was a big theme in this second season. Van Alden also faced the same conflict, though I did find it unfortunate that his role in the series was a pretty minor one this season but by the way his story ended up it seems there will be some interesting stuff to come from his story. I don't think the show has graduated into "great show" territory yet, but I still find it a show that is very watchable and one that frequently creates some very thematically rich scenes. Some of the problems is that there are so many characters and the show wants to really create a macro look at its world instead of focusing on individual characters, and that is very difficult to do while creating suspense. But judging by the improvement in this season, there is no reason to think it won't continue.
Grade: B+
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