Through the magic of Netflix Watch Instantly – which seems to be delivering much better quality image than it used to – tonight I saw one of the films I had been eager to catch last year but missed due to unhelpful film distribution patterns/other commitments/laziness.  ‘Elegy’, a film based on a Philip Roth story, with Ben Kingsley and Penelope Cruz as lovers, Dennis Hopper as Kingsley’s best friend, Deborah Harry as Hopper’s wife, Patricia Clarkson as Kingsley’s long term girlfriend, and Peter Sarsgaard as Kingsley’s son proclaims itself a desirable prospect from its casting alone.  Its director, Isabel Coixet, made two of the best interior dramas of the past few years in ‘The Secret Life of Words’ and ‘My Life Without Me’.

It’s a gorgeous film, thoughtful and ruminative about life and love, ageing and death; a film in which the New York of Woody Allen’s serious side is a character (even though the movie was shot mostly in Vancouver).  It’s about what happens when a person prefers their career over being with other people; when one allows even a little celebrity to take over the priorities of human relationships; when a person believes their own propaganda.

It’s also about cities and how they can affect people – in this movie they look at each other through windows, across courtyards, in nightclubs and taxis, and they’re scared to say what they think or even to really know what they want.  But maybe not always.

Of course, Philip Roth is known for being a serious man – too serious, according to his ex-wife Claire Bloom’s extremely sad memoir – and this is a film based on a novel called ‘The Dying Animal’, so don’t expect an adrenaline-fuelled thrill ride.   Actually, maybe that’s not a bad description, for ‘Elegy’ is an exhilirating piece of work, utterly gripping, full of life despite, being its emotional context, which is in the shade, to say the least.  And, to explain the title of this post, all the performances are excellent – these people feel real.  Penelope Cruz in particular re-asserts the vulnerability she showed in ‘Abre los Ojos’ and its remake ‘Vanilla Sky’.  My genial co-host and I were mightily disappointed by ‘Vicky Cristina Barcelona’, for which Cruz won an Oscar.  Not that I begrudge people winning prizes, but she stole that one from herself.

The Great Buck Howard / Featuring John Malkovich – Colin Hanks – Emily Blunt / Written and Directed by Sean McGinly

Look at John Malkovich. You can’t take your eyes off him.  He’s got it.

Malkovich is a compelling, magnetic performer.  He’s the reason to see ‘The Great Buck Howard’.  Unfortunately he’s not the focus of the story – the young man below is.

And that’s the right choice for this movie.

It wasn’t the story I wanted to see – I wanted to see the story of washed up, down and out mentalist Buck Howard as he toured the back water venues of forgotten fly-over America.

But ‘The Great Buck Howard’ is about something different – the journey of the young man, played appropriately by the son of a movie star, who’s really not that special, and spends some formative time, (we don’t know how long – the film is kinda wishy-washy that way), learning who he is and what he wants.

‘The Great Buck Howard’ Synopsis

It’s not a great movie, perhaps not even a good one in the traditional sense, (the story is tired and without real bite – imagine what Altman would have done with it!), but I think it’s the film the makers wanted to do – and in that sense it succeeds.  It’s light, a trifle and forgettable – an amiable way to pass the time.

And if you’re in the mood for Malkovich – it’s just the ticket for you.

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‘The Great Buck Howard’ will be at the Belcourt Cinema in Nashville from Friday, March 27th

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If you want something in a similar vein, but with more vim and vigor, I recommend ‘My Favorite Year’ – another story of a young man tasked with looking over a prickly, tart male prima donna, (memorable played by Peter O’Toole who recieved an Acadamy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his efforts).  It’s available right now on Netflix’s Watch Instantly.

Two Lovers / Featuring Joaquin Phoenix – Vinessa Shaw – Gwyenth Paltrow –
Isabella Rossellini – Moni Moshonov / Directed by James Gray (warning: possible spoilers)

What a wonderful movie.

Computerised recommendation systems, (such as those employed by Netflix), encounter difficulty with using people’s ’star ratings’ as accurate data due to humans tendency to reward something good with higher praise after experiencing something bad – so after seeing a stinker like Pearl Harbor you’d lean towards giving that Woody Allen film you saw right afterward an extra star, (even if it’s ‘The Curse of the Jade Scorpion’).

I tried to keep that in mind while watching ‘Two Lovers’.  After being inundated on The Tubes by ‘Watchmen’ News I was craving something adult – you know, grounded in the real.  So I was in the right mood for this film.

It’s brilliant.

The story of a lost, desperate young man, ‘Two Lovers’, like ‘Taken’, tells one of our oldest narratives.  Should one be part of society, of a community, or an outcast?  One can imagine this story arising out of our pre-agricultural past – as humans began to settle down in settlements, there would be those that preferred the nomadic life; and social-cohesion dynamics being what they are it’s easy enough to be ’selected’/pushed towards being the outsider.

‘Two Lovers’ tells this old story not only as drama, but as thriller.  The hero is confronted by the choice – suddenly it seems – between two women.  One, amply thesped by Gwyneth Paltrow, seemingly like him a walking disaster, holds the promise of someone to care for, and a life away from the constraints of community and social obligations.  The other, sketched beautifully by Vinessa Shaw, wants to care for him.  I watched the film on the edge of my seat – which way will our hero go?  ‘Two Lovers’ is an essay in suspense, far more thrilling than contemporary action films that use fast cuts and violence in place of the genuine anxiety that comes with our life of choices.

So the film works.

More than that, it works well.  Has their been a recent film with such pitch-perfect performances?  Not only is Joaquin Phoenix’s portrayal of a troubled young man beyond reproach, (and no talk of recent sightings on talk shows please – vultures begone), in ‘Two Lovers’ everyone is good.

See the film and observe Gwyneth Paltrow on the train – look at how she frowns, wrinkles her forehead when talking to our hero – this is beautifully observed naturalism.

Vinessa Shaw – never for a moment do you doubt her feelings for Phoenix’s character – the excitement in her eyes; her whole body carries a secret.  She’s in love.

Elias Koteas does more in one scene than most actors do with a franchise, (in my alternative world o’movies Elias would be Star).

I could go on – but am gushing enough – it’s worth seeing if only for Isabella Rossellini and Moni Moshonov as our hero’s parents – how rare it seems to see genuine parental love on film.

So which way does our hero jump?  I won’t say here.  The film does offer the possibility that one can be within an community, and an artist, (a wonderful thematic thread in the film is our hero’s photography – he’s encouraged by society around him to take photographs of people, not just buildings in decay), to find love and still be free.

In the end the choice is made for him.  Will he be happy in his life?  I don’t know.  But I suspect that, like the woman in white on the ferry, not a month will go by without my wondering if this hero, Leonard Kraditor, has settled, contentedly, into his life.

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‘Two Lovers’ will be the Belcourt Theatre in Nashville till the 5th of March – You should go see it.

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(Photos in this post adapted from ‘Two Lovers’ promotional material)

So, there’s the movie called ‘Crossing Over’ that, according to the imdb is being released this Friday.  It’s directed by Wayne Kramer, the came-out-of-nowhere director of the wonderful smart, sexy and funny Vegas drama ‘The Cooler’; it stars Sean Penn and Harrison Ford and Ashley Judd and Ray Liotta.  Its pedigree would lead you to believe that there’s at least something to celebrate about this movie.

So why, then, have I heard nothing about it, seen no trailer, and do I have the creeping suspicion that it won’t make it to a theatre anywhere near me?  If a film with this cast (popular and good in most of what they do), director (known for a film that was widely loved), and theme (serious enough to evoke the possibility of being thoughtful, accessible enough to be seen by a decent-sized audience, timely enough to spark a public debate), has to be sneaked into cinemas, while the 3-D Jonas Brothers film competes for multiplex space with ‘He’s Just not that Into the Pink Panther Shopaholic Lycan Mall Cop’, are we really seeing, as Jett often prophesies, the end of cinema as we know it?

There are about three hundred screens within 30 minutes of where I live – and I have no confidence that there will be anything on this weekend that I want to see.  Do I have to look forward to only being able to see a film I want on the big screen when it has the advertising budget of ‘Watchmen’ or a 3-D trick to ‘justify’ charging an extra five bucks for the ticket?  Is this the end, or are we just going through a phase?

Films Reviewed This Week: Jett and Gareth’s Live Commentary from the Belcourt Theatre Oscar Night America Benefit

Plus we continue our DVD Commentary Competition

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(Photo above from Gareth Higgins blogging at the Belcourt before the start of the Oscar Benefit)