It Might Get Loud

Jimmy Page. The Edge. Jack White.

Even reading those three names in a row makes me a little giddy. I almost got chills watching these guys play together.

Director Davis Guggenheim rounded up three generations of rock ‘n’ roll gods, guitarists from Led Zeppelin, U2 and The White Stripes in his documentary ode to the electric guitar, “It Might Get Loud.”

The triad met in January 2008 to chat about their six-string obsession but ended up jamming more than jabbering. Circular dolly shots take in the legends playing together. It’s exhilarating.

But the bulk of the film’s running time consists of fascinating individual artist portraits where the boys visit old stomping grounds, gush about musical inspiration and reveal techniques.

The Edge’s deconstruction of U2’s “Elevation,” with its embarrassingly simple two-chord pattern, is a testament to his mastery of pedals and effects. White’s raw, gritty blues flavored rock and anti-technology sentiment make for an interesting comparison.

The White Stripes frontman makes the most interesting subject, in part because his persona is the hardest to pin down. He wanders around conversing with a nine-year-old version of himself, lives in a rickety barn that looks like it’s about to collapse, and dispels “ease of use” – plus he makes an interesting opening hook for the movie, creating a makeshift guitar out of wire, nails and an empty Coke bottle.

Page’s screen time seems a little slighted, but he is also the most reserved of the three, making his segments less interesting.

Besides the one-on-ones with the artists, there is archival footage of a neon-clad, new wave playing U2, earnest-faced Jimmy Page in a British skiffle band and a Stripes concert where White still refers to Meg as his sister.

It’s a bit demystifying, though fun, to see where the greats found their own inspiration: Page from rock pioneer Link Wray, The Edge from punk outfits The Jam and The Clash, White from the rockabilly of Flat Duo Jets.

While the film itself is a bit helter-skelter, jumping from topic to topic haphazardly, it’s well-shot with numerous close-ups of guitar playing action, deifying the guitar players.

Differing musical styles aside, each of the men has a common yearning to play honest music. The spirit of rock ‘n’ roll lives on even though it is tragically drowned out on today’s airwaves.

The music geek’s ultimate documentary, “It Might Get Loud” will give hardcore fans hard-ons. Extensive knowledge of rock history or fingering frets is not even required. “Loud” simply lets three great musicians rock.

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The Wrestler

Desperate to continue a career as a professional wrestler after his golden years pass him by, Randy "The Ram" Robinson (Mickey Rourke) works the amateur circuit. A heart attack forces him to trade in the tights for a normal life as he searches for relationships with stripper friend Cassidy (Marisa Tomei) and estranged daughter Stephanie (Evan Rachel Wood).

The picture belongs to Rourke. His performance is sublime, physically and emotionally vulnerable, and painful to watch. Even with the brutal beatings and countless injuries suffered, wrestling has been far kinder to Randy than real life.

You can’t help but root for the guy, which makes his scenes of breathtaking self-destruction hard to swallow. The camera frequently follows Rourke creating a unique and especially personal aesthetic.

Even if wrestling is more of a spectacle than a sport, the pain is as real as it gets. Colliding with barbed wire, staple guns, and shattering glass are typical. Intricate details of the fights and performers talking shop backstage create a legitimate feeling world for the film.

The only false step in the entire film is Wood’s slightly undercooked role, and the fact that her acting prowess pales when next to Rourke. Stephanie has been understandably jaded by years of her father’s absence, but Wood’s performance isn’t much more than one-note callousness. A far more interesting relationship is played between Randy and Cassidy.

Both are aging performers far from their peak. Both have different names for on stage and off. Offstage, Cassidy prefers her real name, Pam. But Randy is Randy “The Ram” everywhere. He shudders to be summoned by birth name “Robin.” He’s only alive when performing; Cassidy performs because it’s a living.

On paper it may seem like a typical underdog story, but I never once felt the pang of cliché. Rourke is dazzling, the style gritty, the story compelling.

This is Darren Aronofsky’s most conventionally done picture yet – the frenetic visual style of earlier works is gone - but it just might be his best. He’s paid his dues; this should have been his shot at best picture and directing. Though the Academy unrighteously snubbed this outstanding film, “The Wrestler” deserves the highest accolades.

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Three Monkeys

Turkish import “Three Monkeys” derives its title from the primate promoted proverb “see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil.” The fourth monkey who advises to “do no evil” is missed, because there are plenty wrongdoings to go around.

Nearly asleep at the wheel, politician Servet (Ercan Kesal) kills a man on the road and escapes the scene. Afraid of losing an election, he bribes his driver Eyüp (Yavuz Bingo) to take the blame. The rest of the film chronicles what happens to Eyüp’s troubled son and adulterous wife while he’s in jail.

The concept of threes is there if you’re looking; three visits to father in prison, three family members, three sins committed. But does ignoring the truth make it go away? There’s pain that can’t be forgotten. Sweeping everything under the rug seemingly destines the family to misery.

Realism is splashed with creepy surrealism in the form of a ghostly figure that haunts the family, who I presume is the fourth monkey, but you should see the film to find out who that is.

The acting is nuanced and professional. The actors give us just enough clues but don’t tell us everything that’s going on in their heads. A minimalist approach with dialog leaves us with a very sparse film, save the rich visuals.

Superb cinematography abounds. Many scenes are shot in shadows, delivering a noir-like atmosphere and a very distinctive mood. Key scenes are shot with the camera pulled way back, leaving us cold and detached. Colors are mostly muted, with only ugly greens and yellows surviving. It’s equally unpleasant and gorgeous to look at.

While the pace is slow and deliberate, the film never gets boring. However, a little more tension would have helped propel things along. Also, the conclusion to the circular story arc feels like both too much and not enough. You’re not beaten over the head with the message, but you’re also left with not quite enough to chew on.

“Three Monkeys” almost gives us a hat trick with stellar imagery and strong acting, but the storytelling leaves something to be desired. Art house fans will be satisfied but not enthralled.

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The Garden

It’s a classic David and Goliath story. Race, class, and politics flare up in this excellent documentary. “The Garden” was nominated for Best Documentary Feature at the 2009 Academy Awards and finally gets a run in theaters.

A 13-acre plot of farm ground in downtown Los Angeles has been worked for over a decade by low income Latinos. Land is communal, open to anyone to farm. The location is a lone spot of nature in the otherwise developed cityscape.

The city bought the land from a private developer in the 80s, but recently sold it back to him in a backroom deal off the record. Now the city and developer want the immigrants out so a warehouse can be constructed.

The land has become much more than it seems for its workers; it has become their livelihood, their way of living.

Director Scott Hamilton Kennedy wisely lets the farmers tell the story instead of opting for a narrator to string things together. These real people carry the picture and let us get to know them. They simultaneously feel authentic and like characters in a work of fiction.

Lack of narration helps draw you in and forget you’re watching a documentary. Title screens are used to fill in bits of information not covered elsewhere.

Lawsuits and rallies abound to save the garden. Trouble doesn’t only brew between the city and the farmers though. A farmer is evicted after not complying with community established rules and attacks another with a machete.

Guess it’s not in the Garden of Eden.

It’s great to see that this movie contains an honest to goodness story, richer than many concocted by Hollywood writers. A few years worth of the power struggle for the garden are covered in the brisk, 80 minute running time.

The direction and editing are adept, working to clearly tell the story. The movie was obviously shot a low budget, but this gives it a homespun charm much like that of the garden itself. It feels like an indie picture produced lovingly by professionals.

The only thing that kept me from getting completely behind the cause was the likelihood that not all of the farmers were legal citizens; illegal immigrants shouldn’t have a legal leg to stand on. But it appeared that many of them were legitimate residents.

While the film obviously sides with the farmers, both sides are represented. The councilwoman and developer responsible for the illegal deal get to express their side, even though the latter refused to be interviewed. Kennedy went out of his way to make sure everyone was heard.

Go see “The Garden.” It’s an excellent slice of life picture with a real story to tell.

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Revolutionary Road

This is definitely not a date movie.

In an ingenious casting move, Titanic lovers Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet are reunited, but this time they’re falling out of love. And it’s not a pretty spiral downward.

Frank and April Wheeler (DiCaprio and Winslet) move into a quaint house in a Connecticut suburb with their two children. They live among local suburbanites trapped by their own lives, but the Wheelers believe they won’t get stuck in the rut too. However, work and infidelity eat away at their marriage until the two realize they’ve become another victim of middle class melancholy. Realizing that they have to make a change, the couple plans to move to Paris not to escape their lives, but to start living them. But when April becomes pregnant and Frank is offered a promotion the two are forced to rethink things.

Revolutionary Road depicts what happens when people realize they’ve settled. The film makes it easy to see how this kind of marital misery could have been widespread in the 50s and today for that matter. The film has solid directing and a great script based on the book by Richard Yates. But the acting between the two leads is where the film really succeeds. The scenes where Frank and April argue are downright acidic. They feel true to life and are sometimes painful to watch.

The film works as more than a narrative about its leads and becomes a pessimistic tableau of marriage and modern life in America. If you’re ready to walk away thoroughly depressed, this is one road worth going down.

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Wendy and Lucy

If you’ve ever been homeless or have lost your dog, watching this movie might move you to tears. But I think it’s more likely that you’ll be bored to them.

Wendy (Michelle Williams) and her dog Lucy are traveling to Alaska in search of a new life, with little more than a car and a handful of possessions. The car breaks down in a small Oregonian town, which is the first event in a series of bad luck and worse decisions for Wendy. She ties up Lucy outside a supermarket then gets caught shoplifting inside. After being released from jail, to her horror she discovers that her dog is gone. The rest of the picture is a bleak affair, chronicling the search for Lucy and Wendy’s struggles to survive in a foreign place with no money.

This is a tough film to sit through. Wendy seemingly has no friends and has an estranged relationship with her sister. When Lucy disappears, she’s got nothing left. There’s very little in the way of plot, which wouldn’t matter so much if Wendy were more developed. Her daily actions of endurance are fascinating to watch, but it’s very difficult to care for the character. We never find out why she left home, why she has those mysterious bandages, or why she is so hard on her luck. We don’t learn anything about Wendy’s personally either; she’s broken to the point of being a void. Her back-story is left purposefully ambiguous, but that becomes a big hindrance for the audience’s emotional investment.

This feels like one of those films you’re almost required to like as a critic. It’s “arty,” and minimalistic, but it tries too hard. Or maybe it doesn’t try hard enough. Wendy isn’t enough of a character for the film to be much of a character study. And without giving anything away, the conclusion to the film left me underwhelmed and not emotionally attached at all. This film is meant to evoke empathy for homeless and others in tough financial times. But that’s a pretty hard task when you’ve got a ghost of protagonist.

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Let the Right One In

Elegant is not usually a word one uses to describe a horror film. Nor are words like serene, delicate, or ethereal. But those are perfectly fitting descriptions of the Swedish import, Let the Right One In. However one could also be equally right saying that it’s violent, bloody, and disturbing. The film veers to both extremes, much like its main characters Oskar and Eli. They’re like two sides of the same coin.

Oskar is a lonely middle school boy who is constantly and cruelly bullied by stronger kids in his class. From the beginning we can see a rage building within him, but he doesn’t have the courage to stand up for himself. Oskar finds a friend in Eli, an equally lonely girl who moves in next door. What Oskar later learns is that Eli is a vampire, which he accepts without batting an eye. The two realize they are kindred spirits and form a relationship.

Let the Right One In leaves in a lot of blanks to be filled in by the viewers. The biggest inquiries probably surround Eli’s relationship with the questionable middle-aged man, Håkan, that she lives with. He kills for her to support her blood drinking habit. But he’s getting sloppy with the murders. He nearly gets caught in his first kill of the film. Does he want to get caught? And why does he later go through great lengths to protect her? In the book that the film was based on, Håkan is a pedophile that is being used by Eli. This is barely hinted at in the film. Also handled abstractedly is the issue of Eli’s androgynous gender. The vagueness is a double-edged sword for the film. On one hand, it’s nice to not beaten over the head with some facts, but on the other some threads feel unfinished.

One thing I cannot go without mentioning is the cinematography. The numerous shots of snowy Sweden are lovely and calm. They still maintain that look in contrast to the carnage that fouls the landscape. The shots are also frequently wide and pulled back, distancing us from the violence. One of the best things about the film is that the violence isn’t glamorized or overdone. It is bloody, but it’s not played out like in other recent horror films.

Perhaps more discomforting than the blood sucking is the bullying that Oskar endures. But anyone who was bullied as a kid will be glad to know that the punks get their comeuppance. Oskar finds courage from Eli to fight back. I really liked their understated relationship, and the differences between them. He’s weak, she’s strong. He wants to kill, but she has to kill to live. The development of their relationship takes prevalence over a strong story, so thankfully it’s a pleasure to watch.

The film has a lot going for it but it isn’t perfect. I felt a little underwhelmed after watching it. Maybe it was because critics almost universally praised it that my expectations were too high. One thing that bothered me though was that I spotted the ending coming a mile away. Without giving too much away, I will say that the climax is done in a pretty spectacular way. It just wasn’t a surprise, but maybe it didn’t need to be. I hope that I don’t come across too harshly because this is a really good film. I just didn’t enjoy it as much as some other critics. But this is still one of the best horror films to come out in a long time.

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Top 10 - 2008

Howdy, and welcome to my blog. I'm Tom Helberg and I love movies. I'll try to update this blog as often as I can with film reviews for your edification. Hopefully, I can help you find something worth watching. Even though it's a bit late, I wanted my first post to be my Top 10 for 2008. Normally I would elabortate on my feelings on these films, but this list is late and you're probably burned out on reading these sorts of things. However, I will say that I'm still bitter that the Academy snubbed my top two films for Best Picture and Best Director nominations. Seriously, how did Frost/Nixon do it?

1. The Dark Knight
2. The Wrestler
3. Slumdog Millionaire
4. Doubt
5. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
6. Valkyrie
7. Iron Man
8. Burn After Reading
9. Wall-E
10. Synecdoche, New York

Favorite Performances:

1. Heath Ledger - The Dark Knight
2. Mickey Rourke - The Wrestler
3. Robert Downy, Jr. - Tropic Thunder
4. Richard Jenkins - The Visitor
5. Brad Pitt - Burn After Reading

Most Hated Film of the Year: Mamma Mia!