A David Morse Reappraisal: Down in the Valley (2005)

Introduction: 

For my latest DVD Netflix actor's spotlight article, I chose five outstanding performances by character actor David Morse. One of the films I analyzed for the piece was this 2005 sleeper but unfortunately, the independent film studio went bust and the DVD is no longer in production or available to rent from Netflix. However, as of this post, "Down in the Valley" is available to stream from a variety of services (check the site/app Just Watch for current details) so I wanted to share this reevaluation of the film here for you today. 

"Down in the Valley"

Writer-director David Jacobson's “Down in the Valley” is as eerily dark yet disarmingly gentle as the potentially dangerous modern-day drifter cowboy Harlan Fairfax Curruthers that Edward Norton plays in the flawed yet fascinating film. A psychologically compelling character-driven contemporary western that plays on the genre archetypes of good and evil, the film focuses on the aimless wanderings of two kids coming-of-age in the San Fernando Valley. 

As a restless teenager on the cusp of womanhood, Tobe (Evan Rachel Wood) spends most of her days with friends or being followed around by her equally bored brother Lonnie (Rory Culkin). A maternal figure standing in for their mother who's out of the picture, in the way that Lonnie gravitates to Tobe, we begin to realize that – although Jacobson barely fills in the details for most of these characters – Wood's Tobe is a girl who has grown up much too quickly. 

 And just like we see in Norton both darkness and light, casting the precocious Wood (who'd first made a splash playing characters thrust into adulthood early), ensures that Jacobson brilliantly uses people as iconography in “Down in the Valley.” 

Ogled by Norton's handsome, much older Harlan as he fills her friend's car with gas, Tobe boldly eyes the stranger back and impulsively invites him to accompany them to the beach. Quitting his job on the spot, he jumps feet first into the ocean and headfirst into a relationship with Tobe. 

Guileless and relatively innocent (at least initially), although it's Harlan who has several years on his new girlfriend, after their first afternoon together quickly escalates into sex, it's surprisingly Harlan who wants to pump the brakes a bit and court her '50s style. Asking her younger brother if it's okay that he dates Tobe, in that moment we sense the “aw, shucks” Jimmy Stewart style nervousness that attracted Tobe to Harlan in the first place. Unfortunately for the kids, however, it takes a man closer to Harlan's age to see right through it. 

An overprotective stepfather to the two children who once again (with his natural “cop's face”) is cast as a man of the law, when Morse's Wade comes home and sees his stepdaughter wearing a dress that the man she's about to leave home with bought her, alarm bells start to go off in his head. Sizing him up but soon backing down, he lets the two go out, which indicates to us that Tobe must be of age (or else he's just that trusting). Things quickly change, however, first when she begins staying out all hours and again when she gets arrested for stealing a horse after former ranch hand Harlan lets himself onto another man's property to “borrow” a white horse and bring Tobe for a joy ride. 

In medieval romantic literature and movie westerns, the chivalrous heroes of the genres are the ones on white horses donning white hats. But even before Jacobson lets us see how white-hatted Harlan spends his days playacting gunfights (with real guns) when Tobe's not around, we start understanding why Wade instinctively knew that when it comes to this cowboy, something is definitely off. Pulled into the melee after the horse's owner (Bruce Dern) calls the cops and tells them that despite Harlan's insistence to the contrary, he's never seen him before in his life, Wade lays down the law that she needs to stop seeing this strange man. 

Soon a standoff develops between the two in the meandering third act when Morse – donning a black hat, clothes, and riding a dark horse as well – forms a posse with others to locate and arrest Harlan for a shocking crime. And the film's genre symbolism truly comes full circle when they wander onto a western movie set. 

Refusing to give us any answers about the drifter's background or mental state as the character of Harlan takes on some De Niro in “Taxi Driver” like properties when he aspires to “rescue” the kids from their domineering stepfather, the film finds its one true moral center in the complex heart of Wade. A cautionary tale about the dangers of fantasy, which – despite offering a sense of escape – can be taken much too far, Morse's Wade is the prickly voice of reason when the kids are charmed and seduced by Harlan. 

Knowing he's too strict with Tobe and frighteningly pushes her away, there's a sense of heartbreak and unease in Wade's behavior throughout the movie. We sense this both when he tells Lonnie not to sleep in his sister's room so much because he wants to toughen the sheltered boy up and also when he struggles to discipline a young woman at her most emotionally and hormonally confusing time. He's ill-equipped for his role as their guardian or single father and he knows it. 

Raising questions about masculinity, which admittedly need additional fleshing out to give Morse more to work with and the audience a better sense of their home life, Jacobson's script weaves in a few key lines of dialogue about Wade that are uttered by the other characters. Wanting to impress and bond with his new friend and sudden role model Harlan, Lonnie describes Wade's background in the service as a war veteran. Showing Harlan Wade's collection of vintage guns that he won't let Lonnie touch until he's at least sixteen, Wade's concern over their deadly intent – even when he draws down on Harlan midway into the movie to scare him off – admirably contradicts the casual, frightening way that Norton's character plays with weapons like they're mere extensions of his hand. 

Like his work in “Dancer in the Dark,” Morse's role in “Down in the Valley” is a relatively small one compared to co-stars Edward Norton and Evan Rachel Wood (whose portrayal of a young woman under the spell of a dangerous older man at a time that she actually was makes it quite harrowing). Still, via Morse, Wade's new stateside war between wanting to protect his stepchildren from potential harm but not drive them away in the process becomes one of the film's most underdeveloped yet subtly moving plotlines. So caught up in Tobe's relationship was I the first two times I saw the film, this reading of Wade only came to me recently in a rewatch. Intriguingly, although he has a fraction of the screen time, Morse's Wade is the one you'll find yourself contemplating much more after it ends, even though he's far less mysterious than Harlan. 

And while the film's insistence to put a bow on the ending as two characters reflect on Norton's troubled cowboy takes something away from “Down in the Valley”'s overall ambiguity, it's a curious film that's elevated by its talented quartet of stars. Likewise, it's one where the innate goodness of Norton and Morse's screen personas in other movies make their work here even richer and more subversive than it is on the page.

Read About 4 More David Morse Films & Performances on DVD Netflix here.

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DVD Review: Barefoot (2014)

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Evan Rachel Wood has long been drawn to tales of unlikely friendships and unusual bonds that develop between people who are brought together by their eccentricities (which have run the gamut from quirky to downright certifiable) in her prolific, impressively diverse career.

Typically opting for one of two character arcs, Wood’s oeuvre often finds her either portraying those at a mental, emotional or psychological crossroads or those guiding someone else through the same metaphorical journey through the course of a film.

From her earliest breakthroughs in Digging to China and Thirteen all the way up through King of California, Running With Scissors, Down in the Valley and The Life Before Her Eyes, Wood’s fearless nature along with her unwavering commitment to each character that she loses her own identity as a celebrity while playing makes her one of the most underrated character actresses of her generation.

Able to strengthen flawed material like Justin Long’s affable but admittedly protracted A Case of You with her chameleon-like knack for making you instinctively buy into whatever role she’s taking on, Wood followed up her Kate Hudson-like hippie waif in Long’s Rom-Com Case with another role that, if played by someone less talented, could’ve become easily stereotypical female date movie bait. Yet because Wood is so genuine as Barefoot’s guileless wallflower Daisy, she makes the film’s formula feel much fresher than you might’ve imagined.

Cast as an innocent young woman (which Meryl Streep once said is the hardest thing to play believably) who’s been sheltered indoors her entire life by a mentally ill parent, after her parent passes away offscreen, Daisy is sent reeling; unable to cope with life outside on her own.

A fish out of water regardless of the situation, when Daisy is placed in a mental institution due to her odd behavior, she takes the first opportunity she has to leave by following Scott Speedman’s down-on-his-luck janitor Jay out the door after he rescues her from a dicey situation.

Offering her a few dollars for shoes despite her proclamation that she’d rather go barefoot, Jay realizes that he can’t just leave the far too trusting Nick at Nite educated, earnest young woman alone to fend for herself in the middle of Los Angeles.

The first decent thing his cad-like character has done up to this point in the film (after saving her from harm, of course) – in debt up to his eyeballs and worried about losing his job which would send the gambling law-breaker to jail, Jay decides to violate his parole in a preemptive strike for what he believes will be the greater good.

Bringing Daisy along with him, Jay sets off for his brother’s wedding down south where he hopes he’ll find his dad (Treat Williams) in a good enough mood to pay off his debt.

Recalling tonally similar screwball inspired romantic comedy movies in the same traveling to a family event and/or destination wedding vein a la the Sandra Bullock genre films Forces of Nature and The Proposal, it’s here where you might say, “wait a minute, I’ve seen this film before.”

Yet whereas most titles would’ve followed the same Bullock movie lead – spending the rest of the running time at the main destination location with most of the action set at the wedding itself, Barefoot decides to use its admittedly short 89 minute length wisely by bringing you something old and something new instead.

Part road movie and part ensemble Rom-Com, Barefoot checks some of the requisite genre boxes including a makeover scene plus charming the future in-laws along with a close call with the authorities (including a cartoonish car chase). But it's much more than simply formulaic as it continues.

Working from a script by Stephen Zotonowski, filmmaker Andrew Fleming laces the laughter with a surprising amount of sweetness combined with sensitive touches that never ridicule the mentally ill characters that Jay considers his only real friends.

Admittedly initially Speedman’s characterization seems slightly disingenuous as it’s hard to imagine the man the film initially establishes as a selfish jerk putting a stranger's needs before his own (especially since they’d just met) but he grows more complex as their relationship builds.

Likewise, the positive message of the film (that’s never laid on too thick) as well as the ample chemistry between the two leads helps you overlook some of its logical inconsistencies.

While not as laugh-out-loud funny as you would assume given the screwball approach, the tone employed by Nancy Drew, Dick and The Craft helmer Fleming is as serious as it is silly.

Frequently bittersweet as if Preston Sturges had been the one to write and direct Holiday with Katherine Hepburn and Cary Grant rather than George Cukor and blended it with a few of the scenes from Sullivan’s Travels and The Palm Beach Story, Fleming punctuates Barefoot's melancholy moments while making you laugh at the same time in a decidedly Sturges-like manner.

A terrific blend of old and new that despite a clumsy beginning a contrived finale is highly recommended for a rainy evening in thanks to the always effervescent Evan Rachel Wood, Barefoot plays especially well as the contemporary half of a genre double feature when paired with a classic screwball romantic comedy from the past.

Text ©2014, Film Intuition, LLC; All Rights Reserved. http://www.filmintuition.com Unauthorized Reproduction or Publication Elsewhere is Strictly Prohibited and in violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.  FTC Disclosure: Per standard professional practice, I may have received a review copy of this title in order to evaluate it for my readers, which had no impact whatsoever on whether or not it received a favorable or unfavorable critique.

Blu-ray Review: A Case of You (2013)

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Like CliffsNotes for People, Facebook profiles provide us with a succinct getting to know you guide to any individual, where a person’s likes, snapshots and status updates have become the cyber version of a first date. Namely, we find out things we used to learn by having a good old-fashioned conversation with a friend request and a click of the mouse.

Using this idea as a jumping off point to explore what would happen if a shy guy took the Facebook profile of the object of his crush-worthy affection far too literally to become what he believes is her ideal mate, affable actor Justin Long makes his screenwriting debut, starring in the work he penned alongside his brother Christian and co-star Keir O’Donnell.

A frothy, sweet romantic dramedy confection with a dry sense of humor that translates a bit awkwardly onscreen, Long’s Case is as in need of mischievous laugh-out-loud fun as it is a stronger sense of just who our lead character actually is before he undertakes his romantic quest to become the real-life version of the blonde, bubbly barista Birdie’s online dreams.

Directed by actress turned Life Happens helmer Kat Coiro, A Case of You’s weaknesses are easily overshadowed by the appealing star-studded supporting cast’s obvious commitment to and infectious energy for the scene-stealing characters they play from Vince Vaughn’s macho publisher and stoned out Spin Doctor guitar instructor Sam Rockwell to Wood’s oddball coworker Peter Dinklage and outgoing ex Brendan Fraser.

The film centers on Long’s insecure writer Sam, whose carting around massive invisible baggage thanks to the trust and commitment issues that stem from his heartbreaking estranged relationship with the mother who’d walked away from him along with his bookish father in favor of an exciting new man.

Deciding he isn’t ready to put himself out there without at least some kind of established (albeit manufactured) connection, Sam uses Birdie’s profile to become someone completely different from himself to attract the effervescent beauty (played by Evan Rachel Wood).

From taking dance, cooking and guitar lessons to purchasing her favorite books and music (including, I presume the Joni Mitchell titular song that is never played or mentioned in the film), Sam fails to realize what the audience, his friends and Birdie already understands, which is that the most interesting person he can possibly be is himself. Likewise, anytime he reveals anything genuine about himself in the film, he’s easily one hundred times more fascinating than the polished, rehearsed guy he’s trying to be.

Finding himself as attracted to Birdie as he is inspired by the caricature artist who seems to be a (thankfully) more relatable version of the stereotypical rom-com free-spirited hippie waif of the over-exaggerated love child of Goldie Hawn meets Drew Barrymore variety, Sam’s love life soon also serves as fodder for his new manuscript.

Branching away from the horrific teen vampire movie novelizations he’d written in the past to create something far more authentic, he chronicles his relationship with Birdie including all of the hopes, fears, secrets and lies he’s too afraid to reveal anywhere but in print.

Although Long’s muse-like plotline sets Case up for a formulaic finish, one of the film’s most admirable qualities is in the way it deviates from traditional romantic trappings.

Intelligently written and respectful of the audience's intellect – instead of just plugging the characters and subplots into the same A+B=C genre paradigms we’ve seen again and again, A Case of You lets its hero’s motivation be its guide, telling a tale of people versus a formulaic plot.

Although we’re enchanted by Wood from her earliest scenes, by not offering enough information about Sam before he begins his plan of romantic action, the film makes it that much harder to root for him or understand his sudden drastic change in attitude when he first picks a fight with Birdie without any real prompting and then inevitably, later sees the error of his ways.

A simple fix might have been swapping out the scene order to move an opening sequence that finds him crossing paths with an ex to later on in the film (ideally before the fight) in order to maximize the emotional impact of it so that we fully grasp his level of insecurity. Unfortunately the way it all plays out onscreen keeps us at an arm’s length from Sam from start to finish.

Thankfully, Long is so charming that he helps break down some of Sam's and by extension the film's walls. Case finds him playing slightly against type so that he delves much deeper to embody a far more internalized version of the same "nerdy" persona that first introduced him to American television viewers (including yours truly) via NBC's Ed over a decade ago.

While his charisma and the palpable chemistry between the two leads helps us get over our some of our hurdles with the main character, the ingenious way that Case introduces and then abandons rom-com red herrings from a likable ex-boyfriend and his tell-all manuscript to Sam’s juvenile conceit that he’s figured out some new dating angle is very impressive for a first time screenplay.

While the humor is too understated to set the film apart from superior rom-coms, making Coiro’s work ultimately as forgettable as its title that sadly never pays off on the promise or allusion to Joni Mitchell, A Case of You is still a warmhearted effort that’s sure to inspire discussion about the ups and downs of love in the time of Facebook.

As succinct as a Facebook profile (by clocking in at a mere 91 minutes), this IFC Films release hits shelves just in time for Valentine’s Day. And even though it’s light on special features, by managing to work in an opportunity for Across the Universe star Evan Rachel Wood to delight viewers with a song, this enjoyable film gives us the greatest bonus in the feature film itself by bringing us both music to our ears and a potential status update to “like” on our Facebook page.

Text ©2014, Film Intuition, LLC; All Rights Reserved. http://www.filmintuition.com Unauthorized Reproduction or Publication Elsewhere is Strictly Prohibited and in violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.  FTC Disclosure: Per standard professional practice, I may have received a review copy of this title in order to evaluate it for my readers, which had no impact whatsoever on whether or not it received a favorable or unfavorable critique.

Blu-ray Review: Charlie Countryman (2013)

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Original Title: The Necessary Death of Charlie Countryman

Hallucinatory and hypnotic – there is a masterpiece of a movie to be found in Frederick Bond’s ultraviolent, dark-as-night valentine Charlie Countryman. Unfortunately and no offense to Shia LaBeouf’s no-holds-barred portrayal of the eponymous lead who’d been sleepwalking through life and is now beginning to feel, the most memorable storyline of the entire movie has absolutely nothing to do with the title character.

Instead, told in flashback and voice-over by the always impressive Evan Rachel Wood, we’re filled in on the unexpectedly riveting back-story of her Beauty and the Beast like romance with the horrific underworld gangster Nigel (a terrifying Mads Mikkelsen).

Sidelined by a near-death encounter, Nigel convalesced in a flat above the Bucharest café where Wood’s gifted yet naïve and sheltered cellist played for customers from morning until night. Growing stronger day by day and note by note – Nigel not only found himself healed by the transformative power of her music but also falling in love with the woman whose playing saved his life before he’d ever laid eyes on her.

And (as Wood’s Gabi explains to Charlie) it was only after the two began a whirlwind romance did Gabi realize that although she saved Nigel’s life, by getting involved with Nigel, she’d forever jeopardized her own as once the afterglow wore off, she learned there was nothing beautiful about this particular beast.

Revealed late into Charlie, it’s only once we reach this point of explanation where Gabi tells LaBeouf’s hopelessly smitten American tourist just how on Earth she could’ve ever married a man who stalks and threatens the lives of her as well as anyone who looks at her twice that we realize what had been missing thus far in the film. Charlie Countryman's missing ingredient was anything resembling an actual and involving storyline.

While Bond’s feature filmmaking debut based on the screenplay by Matt Drake had been undeniably interesting for the first hour, it was ultimately salvaged thanks to his background as a commercial director who knows how to milk style over substance for all its worth and keep us watching for the eye candy alone.

Likewise, the meandering approach taken thus far had only proven why you can’t make great films out of books by Beat Generation authors in that they valued artistry and rhythm over structure and storylines.

Saddled with an uneasy hero in the form of LaBeouf’s American in existential crisis (following the death of his mother), Charlie’s main impetus for action in the film is reaction.

Constantly set in motion by outside stimuli (including conversations with two separate ghosts), Charlie is knocked down like a stack of dominoes from frame one and this process is repeated for a majority of the first act as he passively reacts to people, places and situations. It isn’t until he meets Gabi that he decides to make a decision in his own right, even going as far as to admit that he doesn’t “get feelings” very often.

Although LaBeouf commits himself fully to the role, the way his character bounces back from depressive funk to manic screwball in the blink of an eye, it’s almost as if the screenwriter was as uninterested in him as the audience and kept changing his persona stream-of-consciousness style as he wrote to see if Charlie would suddenly “get interesting.”

While thankfully the film and in turn LaBeouf’s character is augmented by a rather ingenious coda that symbolically harks back to the film’s opening imagery, adding a surprisingly deep layer of extra meaning to the circle of life motif and film’s original title of The Necessary Death of Charlie Countryman, unfortunately it doesn’t make up for Charlie's divertingly creative if narratively all-over-the-place first two-thirds.

Nonetheless, Bond utilizes his commercial background to his credit, infusing Charlie Countryman with some infectious moments of true romance and stylistic breaths of fresh air (courtesy of his entire behind-the-scenes team including cinematographer Roman Vasyanov and editor Hughes Winborne) that come to life in this sparkling Blu-ray transfer.

With this in mind, Bond is undoubtedly someone to watch in the future of cinema. Nonetheless I can only hope that he’ll choose a far more solid screenplay and take the longer art-form of feature filmmaking into greater consideration to make a film that truly maximizes its running time rather than just passing time until its next out-of-this-world scene that makes it seem like it’s a group of short films strung together rather than a cohesive long one.

While Charlie is admirable for its artistic achievements alone (including the aforementioned mesmerizing segment that wouldn’t have been out of place in music themed film festival alongside The Red Violin and Three Colors: Blue),unfortunately the least fascinating thing about Charlie Countryman is Charlie Countryman.

While it’s hardly LaBeouf’s fault as Drake’s script is – just like Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet – filled with far too many, richer drawn Mercutio-like figures (including scene-stealers Mads Mikkelsen and Til Schweiger), it is interesting how many times they name-drop Robert Redford characters and movies with regard to LaBeouf.

Perhaps covertly apologizing to his fans for the poorly written character, the film-in-film meta-modern reference to the actor’s far more stellar work acting alongside Redford in the recent The Company You Keep provides a great recommendation for LaBeouf enthusiasts wanting to see something that actually makes the most of his talent and charm.

Reminiscent of In Bruges and A Life Less Ordinary, not to mention the tripper sequences of Julie Taymor’s Across the Universe – which also has star Evan Rachel Wood in common – this official Sundance Film Festival selection is now available to rent or own on disc and download.

Text ©2014, Film Intuition, LLC; All Rights Reserved. http://www.filmintuition.com Unauthorized Reproduction or Publication Elsewhere is Strictly Prohibited and in violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.  FTC Disclosure: Per standard professional practice, I may have received a review copy of this title in order to evaluate it for my readers, which had no impact whatsoever on whether or not it received a favorable or unfavorable critique.

The Wrestler (2008)

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Similar to the way that Peter Fonda is introduced to the audience in near music video form in Steven Soderbergh's underrated indie gem, The Limey-- another icon of yesteryear, Mickey Rourke (the man who should've been a contender) is introduced to the audience musically over a stellar credit sequence in Darren Aronofsky's The Wrestler. Featuring heavy metal music inviting you to "bang your head" along, it only takes a few carefully edited snippets for us to gather that Rourke's character-- Randy "The Ram" Robinson-- was a hero of the professional wrestling circuit in the 1980s.

Like Fonda's set-up, the bravado of the man and the legend quickly gives way to reality although The Wrestler jolts us right from the start with a visceral opener that echoes the pathos, melancholy, and surprising bursts of charismatic humor of Sylvester Stallone in the original Rocky as we catch up with "The Ram" twenty years later, in present day New Jersey. Quickly after it starts, we're introduced to his "same shit, different day," lifestyle as our lead barely gets paid for his violent fights, just scraping by as a shell of the larger-than-life persona he once was.

As harrowing and intense of a character portrait as Ellen Burstyn's turn in Darren Aronofsky's earlier Requiem for a Dream-- while that film relished in hyper visual cuts that hearkened back to Fosse's All That Jazz-- this film goes for a seedier, docudrama look. Gritty and unnerving, shot hand-held with cameras propped on the shoulders of cinematographers on super sixteen millimeter to give it what Aronofsky told audiences in Phoenix a "provocative documentary style," it's Rourke's show all the way.

Presenting us with the contradiction of his once-great fighter now locked out of his trailer for failure to pay the bills on time, sleeping in his van, trying to jump-start his battle scarred body now aided by glasses and hearing aids with steroids and other drugs the wrestlers buy off one another-- it takes several minutes for us to get a head-on shot of the actor. Simply put, we follow his faux tough guy persona to his bleak existence, almost as though humanistically, it'd be too much to stare into the eyes of the man who tries so hard to fool audiences into thinking he has it all together.

Yet, the impressive physicality of Rourke in arguably his greatest performance cannot be denied and you know whom you're watching from the moment you first hear him cough as in many ways as-- countless critics have noted-- he's playing a character that he himself has routinely stated could've very well been similar to how he'd ended up when his life and career spiraled out of control after his '80s heyday.

A heartbreaker of a film-- Aronofsky lets it all hang out, showing us the opposite reality of the popular myth that wrestling is fake-- by alternatively awing and revolting us with the bizarre personality type of the wrestlers who are soft spoken and friendly as they prep, sometimes going over pre-choreographed moves or buying props together to do the most damage and give the best show yet always reminding us of the level of self-abuse that the sport requires.

This is especially apparent throughout-- whether it's in the tendency towards self-mutilation as Rourke's character pockets razor-blades and cuts a gash in his forehead to make a fight more thrilling or allowing himself to be shot countless times with a staple-gun in one of the film's most unflinching scenes. A master at toying with our emotions, Aronofsky chooses to heighten the effect of the latter fight by having it jarringly intercut to "14 Minutes Ago," going back and forth to illustrate how the wrestlers received each and every horrific injury on their bodies.

Rounding out the talented near-chamber like feel of a film that largely consists of three characters-- like Eastwood's Million Dollar Baby-- Oscar winner Marisa Tomei gives a brave performance as an aging exotic dancer who empathizes with Randy in a relationship that blurs the lines between romantic tinged friendship and professional courtesy as she gives him grinding lap-dances for money while listening to his troubles in earnest. Likewise, finishing off the trio of character actors, the talented Evan Rachel Wood (King of California) does what she can with a slightly underwritten role as his estranged daughter whom Ram has routinely let down over the years.

Highly authentic return to the same character based independent filmmaking that made this reviewer a fan of Aronofsky's roughly ten years ago when I first glimpsed footage of his Sundance Film Festival entrant Pi on Roger Ebert's television show-- as a member of the Phoenix Film Society, I was lucky enough to screen The Wrestler back in November with Aronofsky and Tomei taking part in a post-film discussion.

Revealing the intense amount of preparation that the lead actors including Rourke (who gained thirty five pounds of muscle and had to shed his boxing technique to learn wrestling and do his own flips) and Tomei who learned numerous steps to create "organic" and highly athletic exotic dance routines, it was fascinating to hear the two discuss the way that essentially the two careers we were watching were highly similar.

While both characters made a living with their bodies and used fake names, it was intriguing to dissect the different ways the two were dealing with their lives and career as both make attempts to try and settle things down, especially when "The Ram," undergoes an unexpected bypass surgery after the film's most grueling match. And although he ends up working in a deli for awhile until he faces the inevitable that wrestling is the only life he's known, Tomei's character seems a bit more "with it" on the surface by setting boundaries as she has tried to fool herself into thinking that she's completely in control.

Although the actress admits that compared to Rourke's character, she's "a few steps ahead," the troubling and instantly compelling thing about the film is that as they noted, it could be "any sport" up there on the screen as they deal with the same issues. Additionally, the director noted that the more wrestlers they spoke with about their lives, the more devastatingly similar to Ram's the stories became as the guys essentially work "350 days a year."

Offering a plethora of behind-the-scenes production information, I can only imagine that the film's special features will be well-worth investigating, not to mention that-- given its purposely grainy look-- it's good news to those who haven't upgraded to Blu-ray yet as the result will most likely look the same when it hits both digital formats following awards season.

While Rourke is a near lock for a Best Actor Oscar nomination and the movie just received numerous Golden Globe nods (including one for Bruce Springsteen's acclaimed track "The Wrestler" which he wrote for free for his friend Rourke) and Independent Spirit nominations, there's a definite question about how many mainstream audience members will be able to handle the film's intensely brutal, unflinchingly bloody sequences.

Yet, for those who brave the work-- even if you find yourselves (like a majority of audience members in my row), looking away at times, it's an unparalleled and riveting emotional tour de force. Not to mention that it's not only one of the best films of '08 but undoubtedly the type of movie that lingers in your mind long after it's ended as I can vividly recall certain frames roughly two months after I viewed it.

Download Bruce Springsteen's
Golden Globe Nominated Single
"The Wrestler" from iTunes

Mickey Rourke on

Springsteen's Contribution:

In an interview with Uncut, he stated, "I wrote Bruce a letter, because we've known each other over twenty years, and he knows what I used to be, or whatever. Where I went. What I'd been reduced to. I told him how I felt lucky now and didn't have to end up being this guy, being Randy [character from The Wrestler]. A while later I got a call in the middle of the night: he said he'd written a little song, for nothing. It's f**king beautiful, right? I was honored he took the time, because he's a busy cat. I mean, I'm so goddam proud of this magical movie and to have Bruce's input… ain't nobody in Hollywood with all their millions can just ring the man and he'll do a song, y'know?"

New on DVD for the Week of 8/17/08

I find I get an awful lot of phone calls from friends and relatives at the video store as they wander the aisles aimlessly trying to find something worth renting. While of course, I urge them to explore my DVD New Releases page which is filled with trailers and links, I thought I'd start adding a weekly update when new discs are served up that I've reviewed:

My pick for this week is the undeniably charming comedy, Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day starring Frances McDormand and Amy Adams which is a much better female bonding film than the phony, agenda-driven and propagandist but artistically impressive The Life Before Her Eyes starring Uma Thurman and Evan Rachel Wood, which also hits the shelves this week. However, there's another one that was just released that's sure to fly under the radar, especially for those without HBO (such as myself... who was lucky enough to see it in a "Free Preview Weekend"), namely the Kevin Spacey produced Recount ,which chronicles all the drama and craziness which ensued during and after the 2000 election. To explore the reviews, you can click on the titles in this paragraph or feel free to use the links below:

Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day

The Life Before Her Eyes

Recount

New Article: Across the Universe

Revisit the Beatlemania of the 60's with Film Intuition's newest entry to the Articles Page:

"All You Need Is Love." Across the Universe: Julie Taymor & The Beatles--Featuring more than 20 video clips, 50 photographs and Beatles research, this 8 page article serves as a comprehensive multimedia viewer's guide to Julie Taymor's under-appreciated masterpiece. *contains spoilers*

Enjoy!

The Life Before Her Eyes

Original Title:
In Bloom

Director:
Vadim Perelman

“But it’s too late to say you’re sorry.
How would I know, Why should I care?

Please don’t bother trying to find her,
She’s not there.”
- “She’s Not There,” (The Zombies)

In just one of the recurring artistic references that echo continuously during the follow-up feature from House of Sand and Fog director Vadim Perelman, the melody and refrain of the Zombies hit “She’s Not There” float throughout this tragic tale from screenwriter Emil Stern’s adaptation of the Laura Kasischke novel. Similar to the way that William Blake’s “Nurse’s Song” from his Songs of Innocence collection is used in a key moment, “She’s Not There” has a subtle effect on our main character that rivals the way she jumps when she hears the sound of gunfire on the family room television.

Using time like a revolving door, the film’s parallel narratives surround the beautiful blonde Hillview High School student (played by the talented Evan Rachel Wood) happily laughing and chatting away with her best friend Maureen (Eva Amurri) as they question when their lives will start. Ironically their wish to have something happen in their lives takes place just moments before a young, troubled boy armed with a gun enters their school and leaves an eerily quiet, bloody massacre in his wake before cornering the young women in the lavatory and telling them that only one will live.

Quickly we cut to the fifteenth anniversary of the event as the now married mother Diana (Uma Thurman) tries to cope with intense survivor’s guilt as she brings her precocious, rebellious daughter to Catholic school and goes to work as an art teacher analyzing the usage of flowers and symbolism in paintings in a way that seems to mirror her professor husband’s ethical lectures on conscience and morality.

Although she frequently wears floral attire and the same clanging bracelets she favored in her youth, there appears to be several changes from this now perfection seeking, restless and mentally exhausted Diana to her more wild and careless youth as a promiscuous, pot smoking teenager. In the film's extensive flashbacks, the younger frequently troublemaking Diana served as a stark contrast to her church going, prim best friend Maureen and the girls who shared a close bond that felt more like sisterhood jokingly called each other “the virgin and the whore.”

Visually stunning with clever effects utilized throughout in the way that both narratives seem to play off of one another which heighten the viewer’s interest after a devastating beginning sets the overwhelmingly bleak tone (which seems especially ill-timed given more recent school violence on the college level as well), Perelman’s film boasts excellent performances by its leads especially in the form of Amurri, who is the daughter of Susan Sarandon and Franco Amurri.

While initially it’s hard to step back from the shockingly tragic events unfolding onscreen that culminate into a surprising twist ending that had some audience members debating all the way to their cars, once the symbolism gets overtly preachy near the film’s conclusion which prompted some critics to bash the film as a right-wing statement movie and time passes, the filmmakers’ delicate anti-feminist subtext becomes far more apparent. Is it a female punishment film disguised as something quite close to a ghost story? I hesitate to say more as I want to avoid spoilers and further review reading (most notably John Anderson’s spoiler heavy one in Variety) will no doubt answer any lurking questions curious viewers may have.

A few less heavy-handed symbolic references near the end of the film may have decreased some of the backlash and it’s a tough film to recommend given not only the subject matter but also some of the slightly propagandist messages laced throughout, however it’s visually imaginative and fans of the actors will surely find the work of interest, even if the end result makes Life a large sophomore slump for Perelman after his critical smash House of Sand and Fog.

Digging to China

Director:
Timothy Hutton

Some kids want to run away to join the circus, or as the heroine of My Girl decided, to run away and join The Brady Bunch. In Digging to China, Harriet (Evan Rachel Wood) wants to run away so badly that she tries to get abducted by a UFO so that she can be anywhere but 1960’s rural New Hampshire. Living with her caring but maddeningly alcoholic mother Mrs. Frankovitz (Cathy Moriarty) and twenty-six year old flirtatious sister Gwen (Mary Stuart Masterson) in the motel that the women earned in a divorce settlement, Harriet longs for adventure and when she’s unable to get it by trying to escape, she decides to use her imagination and ingenuity in a wide variety of failed experiments such as a balloon chair and other attempts. Her flights from reality take a backseat with the arrival of thirty year old mentally impaired Ricky (Kevin Bacon) who shows up to stay at the hotel en route to an institution by his sickly, aging mother Leah (Marian Seldes) who worries about what will happen to her son after she has passed away.

Despite their twenty year age difference, mentally and emotionally Ricky is on the same page as the ten year old Harriet and the two become fast friends whose limitations and worries are lessened as they begin to find confidence and hope even after Harriet is faced with an overwhelming and unexpected tragedy. However, the rest of the world isn’t as forgiving of a grown man spending time with an impressionable child and Gwen tries to separate the two which inspires Harriet’s escapist tendencies once again when she and Ricky go on the lam to live the life of boxcar children until they must return.

While it’s easy to dismiss as what Maltin referred to as a “one note” premise, it’s compassionately told and startlingly well acted by Wood in her screen debut as well as by Bacon that recalls at times I Am Sam. Winner of two film festival awards, actor Timothy Hutton’s likable debut as a feature film director was written by the talented screenwriter Karen Janszen who also penned quality family films Duma and Gracie.

King of California

Director:
Mike Cahill

In what Michael Douglas called “one of the best scripts I’ve ever read,” according to the DVD, the Oscar winning actor dreams the impossible dream portraying bipolar Charlie who, just released from a mental institution, embarks on a quest to find buried gold left from the expedition of seventeenth century Spanish explorer Father Juan Florismarte Garces. The fact that it’s buried six feet below cement in the local Costco doesn’t deter him in the least as he pours over books and orders expensive equipment to aid him in his quest, much to the disappointment of his intelligent, hardworking sixteen year old daughter Miranda (Evan Rachel Wood) who, forced to fend for herself when he went away, has become the responsible party pulling double shifts at McDonald’s to pay the bills and telling enough lies to social services and others so that she wouldn’t have been brought into the depressing foster system. Worried that her father’s erratic behavior is a sign that he’s getting worse, Miranda tries to control Charlie but then decides to tag along more to keep him company than anything else out of fierce and blind love for her father that defies all logic even when he rants. Soon, almost against her will, Miranda begins to believe Charlie’s tales and goes undercover working at the local Costco while the two, along with a former associate of his, plan a way to get past the security alarm and hunt for treasure. Fascinating, funny and filled with intelligence and heart, this quixotic independent film marks the film debut of novelist turned talented writer/director Mike Cahill.

King of California, which was a finalist in the 2004 American Zoetrope Screenwriting Contest offers a brilliant showcase for Douglas who’s playing a character that seems to be the polar opposite of his early Prince of Darkness roles in Wall Street and Fatal Attraction and after his work in Wonder Boys and Traffic several years ago, indicates to audiences that he has much more to offer in his legendary career. Wood further demonstrates her impeccable taste in working on character driven pieces and this film, coupled with her roles in Running With Scissors, Down in the Valley, The Upside of Anger and others makes her one of the most consistently daring and talented young stars to watch and the perfect antidote to the plastic looking one-dimensional characters and actresses that populate most Hollywood films for her age group.

Filmed in just thirty-one days, King of California which played to critical praise at last year’s Sundance Film Festival was recently released on DVD, thanks in part to the name stars and also securing a fan in producer Alexander Payne (director of Sideways) who notes on the DVD that he liked Cahill’s script so much that he was jealous that he wasn’t directing it himself. A true treasure of a film and one that’s hopefully easier for audiences to find than gold underneath a Costco, Cahill’s sundrenched ode to bland homogeny of strip-mall contemporary life points out the wonderful ability for those of us who, like Charlie and Miranda, need to take the time to believe in the impossible dream.