Scott’s Movie Roundup

Sideways: I don’t have much to say that you haven’t already heard. I’m not one to reflexively go with a critical consensus–hell, most critics think Richard Goddamn Linklater is a genius–but this movie demonstrates the folly of Hitchens-like contrarianism; it’s pretty clearly the best American movie of the year. Payne’s record is remarkable–four films, every one a gem. That’s pretty amazing–just ask the highly gifted David O. Russell, who I respect enough to pass over I Heart Huckabees in respectful silence. The script is remarkably rich and detailed, with acting to match. Giamtti you know about, but while I have no idea who Thomas Church he was perfectly cast. And kudos to the (Canadian, natch) Sandrah Oh, who I’ve loved since Double Happiness.

Closer: Almost every review has said it’s Mike Nichols’s best movie in years, which is more backhanded praise than the film deserves (sure beats Wolf and Regarding Henry to hell!). But perhaps appropriate, since the picture really doesn’t add up to much, which reminds one that Nichols has applied his superior direction and excellent casts to such rotten movies presumably because he has nothing to say. Still, the movie is consistently absorbing and sometimes gripping despite the ultimate vacuity at the core–to deny the pleasures of Nichols’s undeniable craftsmanship in this context would be as silly as trying to turn this into a masterpiece. Lots of nice touches, and surely Nichols deserves credit for the fact that Julia Roberts, probably my least favorite major actor, acquits herself surprisingly well with a character that is nothing but a sum of whatever arbitrary choice is needed to advance the plot. I don’t think Portman deserves the bad reputation she’s gotten in some quarters–nobody acts well in a George Lucas movie–but I can’t say she’s good here. But it’s Owen who makes the movie worth watching. Recommended if, like me, you enjoy the glib nihilism and postefeminist gender stereotyping of Carnal Knowledge in spite of yourself.

A Fond Kiss: I always link Ken Loach with Mike Leigh, although they’re very different. My superego would tell me it’s perverse to claim that Loach is better than the more innovative Leigh, and I concede that Leigh–whose movies are, at least, like nobody else’s–would never make a movie as bad as risible agitprop of Carla’s Song. And yet, if I could take one director’s DVDs with me to a cabin in the country I’d unhesitatingly pick Loach. Two of his recent films (Sweet Sixteen and My Name is Joe) are minor classics I prefer to any of Leigh’s, including the new career peak Vera Drake, and while this isn’t quite as good it still works. I walked into the movie cold–I was wondering around the East Village and it seemed like the best gamble at the theatre I passed–which is good, because fully appraised of the banal culture-clash relationship framework I probably wouldn’t have taken the chance. Movies like this rise or fall on texture, vermisstude, and characters that transcend the plot schematics, and Loach delivers on all three counts. Yeah, there are a few scenes–the condescending priest, the firing preceded by the “Strange Fruit” slide show–that are as heavy-handed as you’d fear, but for the most part the movie successfully draws you in to its fascinating community. So I guess the lesson is a reminder, again, that received formal structures exist for a reason–Loach’s well-worn plots and conventional storytelling consistently produce more interesting characters than Leigh’s oft-admired quasi-improvisatory techniques.

Sex Is Comedy: A co-blogger suggested this among the two recent Breilliats playing at the Seattle Film Festival, and while we saw the other because of other friends he was certainly right. It’s still minor Breilliat, but a relief after the self-paradoic Anatomy of Hell. While there are lots of films made about the movie industry, there are few good ones about the mechanics itself, and this movie tells us a lot while remaining nicely light on its feet, and it’s always nice to see Anne Parillaud. More importantly, however, its sister movie–the superb A Ma Soeur!–is out in a beautiful Criterion DVD.