SWEET LITTLE FILMS TACKLE BIG THEMES
Palm Desert’s Cinemas Palme d’Or is to be commended for their charity sneak of THE IMPOSSIBLE and the superb, consistent, showcasing of quality foreign, art and indie films, often with a Q&A that includes filmmakers or actors. At Palme d’Or, it’s a year-round film festival. Two recent, non-mainstream films caught my eye and deserve wider attention.
THE DETAILS
OB/GYN doc Jeff Lang (Tobey Maguire) is living the suburban American dream. Well, almost. His ten-year marriage to Nealy (Elizabeth Banks) is a little shaky and a family of raccoons is tearing up his beautifully manicured yard. But it’s Jeff’s growing obsession with eradicating the coons that triggers small events that build exponentially into a looming superstorm that threatens to destroy his world. The twists and surprises in writer/director Jacob Estes’s dark and deliciously moralistic tone poem are not foreshadowed and the wallop they deliver creates the kind of ambiguity and dissonance that rival real life events. Don’t we all know people who somehow just go with the flow, taking the path of least resistance, only to escape the karma or justice we think they deserve? Banks is terrific as the concerned wife of boy-man Maguire. Laura Linney is a wonder as the slightly eccentric, rational and very scary neighbor. This unsettling cinema of the absurd takes place in the most comforting safety of a bucolic, sunlit neighborhood that conceals the infidelity, extortion, madness, murder and mayhem that unfolds like the blossoms of a spring garden.
Ray Liotta has an extraordinary scene of ferocious moral clarity in this devilish delight that’s destined for instant cult classic as it finds the appreciative wider audience it deserves. Dennis Haysbert and Kerry Washington have fine supporting roles. Writer/director Estes held an engaging Q&A at the screening I attended and spoke of how this film reflects the world in which he dwells. He suggested that living with the knowledge of your sins might be the worst (or best?) punishment possible. Don’t miss this layered and unsettling gem that toys with the notions of not attending to the details of the task at hand. Although not intentional in the title, I say, consider the popular saying of what’s in the details.
SMASHED
Aaron Paul and Mary Elizabeth Winstead shared their insights in a Q&A after a screening of this sweet little indie film about an attractive young couple who may only have one thing in common: alcohol. Kate Hannah, Mary’s character, is an elementary schoolteacher who is increasingly unable to function after a weekend of drinking. After throwing up in front of her young students, she lies that she’s pregnant after a student asks. When she seeks sobriety with the help of a smitten, twice-divorced fellow teacher (Nick Offerman), her lies at school are revealed as her marriage to her co-dependent alcoholic husband comes apart.
Aaron, best known as meth-cooker Jesse Pinkman in TV’s “Breaking Bad,” said he was reluctant to take on the part of an addict but he liked the script and the short (19 days) shooting schedule. There is a similarity with his TV persona in behavior and appearance that lessens the power of his role, although he is very good and keeps it real. Winstead, on the other hand, best known for her starring roles in SCOTT PILGRIM VS THE WORLD and ABRAHAM LINCOLN: VAMPIRE HUNTER is just about perfect as a woman risking all she has to become healthy. Because the acting and directing (James Ponsoldt) is so authentic, I was engrossed in the unfolding of this simple, yet familiar, story that in some ways immediately reminds of DAYS OF WINE AND ROSES and even WHO’S AFRAID OF VIRGINAI WOLF? I cared about the couple and was rooting for Kate. In a way, this slight film is little more than a one-act play than a full-fledged film. But that said, I thought it held out hope to those of us who recognize the deadly spiral that addictions can create. Megan Mullally is spot on as the sympathetic school principal who supports Kate’s difficulties with pregnancy but must later fire her for her deception. Octavio Spencer rings true as Kate’s sponsor in AA and Mary Kay Pace is chilling as Kate’s distant mom who says AA stands for “assholes anonymous.” But what makes this film worth finding is Mary Elizabeth Winstead’s startling performance as a young woman discovering the pain of a greater reality. And it’s all there in the heartrending range of emotions that dance across her unmasked, beautiful face.
NEW FOR THE HOME THEATER
SUNSET BOULEVARD
Billy Wilder’s ultimate 1950 film noir has been meticulously restored in a breathtaking hi-def disc. This classic Hollywood story pulls back the curtain on the dream industry and reveals a nightmare. It just gets better and better with time. Bill Holden’s a struggling screenwriter who makes a wrong turn fleeing debtors and lands in the lair of witchy Gloria Swanson’s decayed mansion in the woods.
Yes, it’s a fairy tale for grown-ups that taunts us with not only the cost of selling out but a reminder that the only way to make one’s dreams come true is to wake up. This version of one of Hollywood all-time greats is a perfect addition to the digital home library because it can be enjoyed again and again. It never gets old. That’s the real test of a great movie. The disc includes hours of generous extras and a fascinating commentary. (Someday, someone will no doubt remake this story about a down and out doc who is lured to a Beverly Hills mansion to service the drug needs of a superstar.) Warner Bros. Blu-ray.
Comments? RobinESimmons@aol.com
