Whatever Works

Starring Larry David, Whatever Works is probably the best Woody Allen film I've seen in years. It's not the best film I've seen in years and Woody, in my opinion has created a slew of mediocre films so I'd say this one's pretty good.

David plays the Allen persona as a misanthrope who's got lots of cynical, funny lines. He's a former physics professor, a genius no less, who meets a Southern bimbo, who's sweet as can be. As far fetched as it is, they fall in love and marry. Eventually, her parents find her and are aghast by her husband, but eventually everyone finds what Allen thinks is their true calling. It is quite contrived, but the witty dialog keeps things moving. Like all his films, this one is no doubt a therapeutic movie that helps Allen work out his confusion and issues involving relationships. That does get old. It's an expensive, indulgent means of probing one's psyche and there's a certain ick factor. Or maybe it's a "Here he goes again" feeling. Most people in the audience probably have more mature answers to the great philosophical questions than Woody. Yet it wasn't a bad way to spend 90 minutes.

I'm glad I didn't go to the theater for this one though. It's not worth $10.

Wings of Defeat

Rachel brought this DVD home to watch tonight for homework or more accurately, as a make up for the IB history class she missed last Monday when we were in Chicago.

A documentary done by a Japanese American born in New York whose uncle was a Kamikaze pilot who survived World War II, Wings of Defeat is a thoughtful, almost peaceful dissection of the oft-misunderstood and demonized Tokkotai which is what the Kamikazes called themselves.  The film features former Japanese pilots telling their stories of becoming Tokkotai, fighting as Tokkotai and most surprisingly, especially to themselves, surviving the war.  Also included are interviews with survivors of the USS Drexler, a destroyer sunk by a Kamikaze attack.

In English and Japanese with English subtitles depending on who's being interviewed, Wings of Defeat puts a sympathetic human face on young boys who were simply doing their duty as they understood it, even after they understood the futility of it.

Away We Go

In this modern quest for "Home," a couple played by John Krasinski and Maya Rudolph, who are soon to become parents go from city to city in North America looking for just the right place to raise their daughter. It's a wry comedy, with many sweet moments, written by Dave Eggers and Vendela Vida, who are married.

As the couple, Burt and Verona make their way from Phoenix, to Madison, WI, to Montreal, they encounter odd balls of every persuasion, the overly extroverted, the earth mother and father, etc. Most are ridiculed as is usual in Hollywood fare. Watching it I was entertained, but later I thought don't we see a lot of such characters?

I kept wishing this movie were more like Juno which still sticks in my head as exceptional for its wit and the fact that characters had idiosyncrasies, as well as wisdom. There was no one in Juno that you should just blow off. Here the main characters reject those who welcome them and you can see why. Yet as they stormed out of the earth parents home, I did think, "This is rather forced for the sake of drama." Most people would stay, swallow any insults considering the source and move on. Here I felt Burt and Verona were rude and rather clueless. Get a bit more info about the old friend before you consider that person as the touchstone for a move to Madison.

Then they go to their friends in Montreal and I sort of checked out. At first it was ideal, their college friends, who had adopted several children seemed to have a great life. Though I wondered how people in their mid-thirties had adopted so many unrelated children so fast. (I figure they'd try fertility treatments for years and finally in their 30s start to adopt. Only if you got a group of siblings would you be able to get them by this age. The wife was troubled by her infertility, which I can understand is a major disappointment, but I know people with this problem and they're more stoic as I think one should be. (I like Stoicism. It's practical.)

On the couple goes to Miami where Burt's sister-in-law just deserted his brother and their daughter. Coming to the aid of this broken family, I expected would be the end of the quest. They'd see the importance of helping the brother.

Spoiler Alert

They don't. They reflect on it and discuss it and feel sympathy, but they don't see that they might make a difference for others by setting down roots in Miami. So I felt they were rather clueless.

In the end, they decide to move to the house Verona grew up in somewhere down South. It had been rented out, but Verona and her sister own it. The last scenes were of Burt and Verona entering the house. They were sort of zombie like in their entrance and As they walk through the house it was as if they were in a trance or looking at Martians. I'd have ended the film with them in Miami shortly after they were up all night exchanging non-wedding vows of unending love.

It's worth seeing, but not something I'll watch again and again.

Disney's A Christmas Carol

A new holiday classic?

Hard to say.

Maybe for the first time viewer.

It was visually engaging but suffered from familiarity.  I kept trying to watch it through fresh eyes and could see where it might have some staying power.

It was also odd watching it so early in the season.  Whatever Disney's rationale was for releasing it so early, it just made me wonder.

This Is It

This Is It isn't it.  (How clever am I?)

I wanted to see it because, although I never considered myself a Michael Jackson fan, I did grow up with his music and  certainly enjoyed a lot of it.

The movie spoke to that nostalgia in that did make me want to listen to Michael's old standards and see some of the old videos.  It was interesting to see the process behind putting together a concert extravaganza.

But it was too long, Michael's voice was too ragged, and the cinematography too obviously not intended for a full length major motion picture.

To my mind, the execs at Sony Pictures are delusional if they think it's Oscar worthy.

But what do I know?

How Art Made the World

 

This BBC documentary explores ancient civilizations to see how images and art fostered civilizations' development. It unexpectedly blew me away and taught me as much about anthropology as it did about art.

The charming (and I bet he knows it) Cambridge scholar, Dr. Nigel Spivey leads viewers into caves, tombs and temples to discover the answers to such questions as: why they create so many images that distort the body, why they make images at all, why they surround themselves with art that features death, etc. It proceeds from the premise that:

The essential premise of the show," says Spivey, "is that of all the defining characteristics of humanity as a species, none is more basic than the inclination to make art. Great apes will smear paint on canvas if they are given brushes and shown how, but they do not instinctively produce art any more than parrots produce conversation. We humans are alone in developing the capacity for symbolic imagery."

The six hour series was engaging and edifying and included interviews with psychologists, archeologists and other scientists.

Broken Arrow

Genevieve recommended Broken Arrow as a Western with a modern perspective and lent me the DVD. Based on historical events with a love story and a few other alterations thrown in, Broken Arrow stars Jimmy Stewart as Tom Jeffords the one soldier sick of fighting the Apaches and determined to make peace. He learns their language and takes a chance on riding out solo to see their chief, Cochise. Many of the Americans in town want to attack the Apaches and see them as evil. One general does see an obligation to work towards peace. The film tries to show several points of view and go beyond stereotypes. At times, the dialog was flat-footed, the Apaches were played by Whites and the love story was artificial, but given its innovation for the era (1950s) it’s worth a look. The story moves quickly and a lot happens in its 93 minutes.