Category: Kathiesmith - Joyless Creatures

Jupiter Ascending

6/2/2015

by Kathie Smith

The pop culture crush on Andy and Lana Wachowski began with Bound (1996), a clever noir that took stylistic and thematic risks to satisfying ends. The full-fledged romance commenced with The Matrix, which tapped a pulsing zeitgeist that provoked a response from cultural studies to video games. Unfortunately, what followed was little more than painful reiterations that the honeymoon was over between the audience and the Wachowkis. Reigniting the fire has proven far more difficult for the directing team than everyone had hoped, despite their adventurous explorations of diverging source material in both Tatsuo Yoshida’s inconsequential Speed Racer and David Mitchell’s expansive Cloud Atlas. Although fans may have long given up on the Wachowskis, Jupiter Ascending signaled a potential return to form with their own original screenplay, a headfirst plunge back into pure science fiction, and the unconventional star power of Channing Tatum and Mila Kunis. But like the waning patience of Matrix apostles, the news that Jupiter Ascending delivers little more than random flares of interest will likely only draw apathetic shrugs.

Area Theaters

Directors: The Wachowskis
Producers: Grant Hill, Andy Wachowski, Lana Wachowski
Writers: The Wachowskis
Cinematographer: John Toll
Editor: Alexander Berner
Music: Michael Giacchino
Cast: Mila Kunis, Channing Tatum, Sean Bean, Eddie Redmayne, Douglas Booth, Tuppence Middleton, David Ajala, Bae Doona, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Terry Gilliam

Runtime: 127m.
Genre: Action/Drama/Sci-fi
Country: USA
US Theatrical Release: February 6, 2015
US Distributor: Warner Brothers

Blackhat

16/1/2015

by Kathie Smith

Praise and damning have never been faint toward Michael Mann’s films. A poster boy for Vulgar Auteurism, Mann and his films embody the spirit of this critical reclamation: a swaggering style that embraces bullets, babes, and testosterone- fueled bravado. In other words, movies that reinforce a male fantasy of invincible men pushed to the edge—a formula that easily acquires proponents and detractors largely based on the eyes of the beholder. The entertaining effect, however, can be undeniably electrifying simply because Mann can so potently and elegantly sew these sequences together with flamboyance to burn. The best examples can be found in Thief (1981), Heat (1995), and most recently Miami Vice (2006). Unfortunately, Blackhat, Mann’s first feature in six years, doesn’t hold a candle to Mann’s high points: it’s a mashup of erratic editing and miscued dialogue that only works to deflate the propulsion of its all-too-earnest energy.

Area Theaters

Director: Michael Mann
Producers: Jon Jashni, Michael Mann, Thomas Tull
Writer: Morgan Davis Foehl
Cinematographer: Stuart Dryburgh
Editors: Mako Kamitsuna, Jeremiah O’Driscoll, Stephen E. Rivkin, Joe Rivkin
Music: Harry Gregson-Williams, Atticus Ross, Leo Ross
Cast: Chris Hemsworth, Wang Leehom, Tang Wei, Viola Davis, John Ortiz, Holt McCallany, Ritchie Coster, Archie Kao, William Mapother

Runtime: 133m.
Genre: Action/Drama
Country: USA
US Theatrical Release: January 16, 2014
US Distributor: Universal Pictures

Mr. Turner

25/12/2014

by Kathie Smith

Mike Leigh’s films offer a unique dichotomy between their quotidian subject matter and their uncommon emotional resonance, measured in the weight of their heart-breaking gravity. A champion of working class Londoners, Leigh charts the meanderings of non-events in the lives of idiosyncratic personalities: a family man sets out to make a career change in Life is Sweet, an adult adoptee decides to find her mother in Secrets and Lies, an overly optimistic woman decides to get her driver’s license in Happy Go Lucky, and a happy married couple, well beyond middle age, passes time with friends and family in Another Year. The flip side of these simple portraits is a very complicated method of capturing humanity—grace and frailties alike—through gifted acting and rich dialogue discovered by Leigh’s technique of structured improvisation. The resulting osmotic empathy, in all its various forms, is a rare gift that few movies are able to give audiences.

Uptown Theatre

Director: Mike Leigh
Producer: Georgina Lowe
Writer: Mike Leigh
Cinematographer: Dick Pope
Editor: Jon Gregory
Music: Gary Yershon
Cast: Timothy Spall, Paul Jesson, Dorothy Atkinson, Marion Bailey, Karl Johnson, Ruth Sheen, Sandy Foster, Amy Dawson, Lesley Manville

Runtime: 150m.
Genre: Biography/Drama
Country: UK
Premiere: May 15, 2014 – Cannes Film Festival
US Theatrical Release: December 19, 2014
US Distributor: Sony Pictures Classics

The King and the Mockingbird

19/12/2014

by Kathie Smith

Feature length animations have a way of cultivating singular visions and incubating larger than life passion projects. Look no further than Kevin Schreck’s documentary Persistence of Vision, chronicling Richard William’s much maligned The Thief and the Cobbler, for an example of creative prowess and its tragic demise, but more apropos are the successes guided by an artistic power of one: Jankovics Marcell’s ambitious 3-hour The Tragedy of Man, Mikoto Shinkai’s subtle Power Mac G4 created Voices of a Distant Star, and Chris Sullivan’s one-of-a-kind stop motion melodrama Consuming Spirits.

The Film Society of Minneapolis/St Paul

Director: Paul Grimault
Producers: Yoshiaki Nishimura, Seiichiro Ujiie
Writers: Jacques Prévert, Paul Grimault, Hans Christian Andersen
Cinematographer: Gérard Soirant
Editor: Paul Grimault
Music: Wojciech Kilar
Cast: Jean Martin, Pascal Mazzotti, Raymond Bussières, Agnès Viala, Renaud Marx, Hubert Deschamps, Roger Blin, Philippe Derrez, Albert Médina, Claude Piéplu

Runtime: 83m.
Genre: Animation/Family/Fantasy
Country: France
Premiere: March 19, 1980 - France
US Theatrical Release: October 5, 2014
US Distributor: Rialto Pictures

The Tale of The Princess Kaguya

4/12/2014

by Kathie Smith

Isao Takahata might be the lesser-known name behind Studio Ghibli, but he has provided not only an artistic foundation for the studio—alongside his friend, collaborator and fellow director Hayao Miyazaki—but also the start-up power that gave Ghibli its legs. It was Takahata and Miyazaki’s early work together on the TV series Lupin III (1971-72) and feature Panda! Go Panda! (1972) that shaped their style and galvanized their desire to establish an animation studio with producer Toshio Suzuki. A mere three years into its existence, Studio Ghibli released binary masterpieces that remain standard-bearers in their field: Miyazaki’s endearing My Neighbor Totoro (1988) and Takahata’s heartbreaking Grave of the Fireflies (1988). Twenty-five years later, these two Wonder Twins of animation prove they are still a collective creative force for the history books with two of the finest films of the year (animated or not)--The Wind Rises, Miyazaki’s swan song, and The Tale of The Princess Kaguya, Takahata’s first feature since his underrated 1999 comedy My Neighbors the Yamadas. But in a small shift of thematic role reversal, it is Miyazaki who lays claim to the historical political narrative in The Wind Rises (much like Takahata’s Graveyard of the Fireflies) and Takahata who unfurls a magical story of life’s grand joys and bittersweet sorrows in Princess Kaguya, not unlike Miyazaki’s Totoro.

The Film Society of Minneapolis/St Paul

Director: Isao Takahata
Producers: Yoshiaki Nishimura, Seiichiro Ujiie
Writers: Isao Takahata, Riko Sakaguchi
Music: Joe Hisaishi
Cast: (Japanese) Aki Asakura, Kengo Kora, Takeo Chii, Nobuko Miyamoto, Atsuko Takahata, Takaya Kamikawa, Isao Hashizume, Hikaru Ijuin; (English) Chloë Grace Moretz, James Caan, Mary Steenburgen, Darren Criss, Lucy Liu, Beau Bridges, James Marsden, Oliver Platt

Runtime: 137m.
Genre: Animation/Drama
Country: Japan
Premiere: November 23, 2013 - Japan
US Theatrical Release: October 17, 2014
US Distributor: GKids

The Better Angels

21/11/2014

by Kathie Smith

Calling director A.J. Edwards a Terrence Malick protégé, as the press materials do, may be the understatement of the year, much in the same way that calling his new film The Better Angels a narrative about Abraham Lincoln is an overstatement. For anyone who saw Malick’s The Tree of Life, prepare to be bowled over by the stylistic similarities between these two stories of patriarchal paradox and maternal grace—sans dinosaurs, avec historical figure. If you can shake the disorientation of this verbatim artistic assimilation, however, The Better Angels offers an elegant contemplation of young Abe’s life in the wilds of early 19th century Indiana—its meandering taciturn pace a thankful respite from the rote transcription of historic high points a la Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln.

Lagoon Cinema

Director: A.J. Edwards
Producers: Charley Beil, Jake DeVito, Nicolas Gonda, Terrence Malick
Writer: A.J. Edwards
Cinematographer: Matthew J. Lloyd
Editor: Mathilde Bonnefoy
Music: Alex Milan
Cast: Jason Clarke, Diane Kruger, Brit Marling, Wes Bentley, Braydon Denney, Cameron Mitchell Williams

Runtime: 95m.
Genre: Drama/Biography
Country: USA
Premiere: January 18, 2014 - Sundance Film Festival
US Theatrical Release: November 7, 2014
US Distributor: Amplify

Goodbye to Language 3D

7/11/2014

by Kathie Smith

Nearly a lifetime ago (or in my case, more than a lifetime ago), Jean-Luc Godard picked up a handheld 16mm camera and made Breathless with a sensibility that amounted to a perfect storm of artistic bravado, structural curiosity, bustling intellect and fearless experimental heart. Breathless and all its orchestrated chaos became a touchstone from which progressive film movements around the globe would be compared and qualified. Even among the films of Godard’s Nouvelle Vague colleagues, the insouciant idiosyncrasies of this crime noir set itself apart, leaving a first feature impression that lives on today (both despite and because of the overwhelming body of work Godard has created since). 54 years later, Godard wields digital 3D in Goodbye to Language 3D with the same creative charisma as he did with 16mm. But where Breathless could be compared to a reckless train that might jump the tracks at any moment, Goodbye to Language exercises control over its often abstract whirlwind of images, ideas, and scenarios.

Walker Art Center
November 7 & 8

Director: Jean-Luc Godard
Producers: Brahim Chioua, Vincent Maraval, Alain Sarde
Writer: Jean-Luc Godard
Cinematographer: Fabrice Aragno
Cast: Roxy Miéville, Héloise Godet, Kamel Abdeli, Richard Chevallier, Zoé Bruneau, Christian Gregori, Jessica Erickson, Marie Ruchat, Jeremy Zampatti, Jean-Luc Godard

Runtime: 70m.
Genre: Drama/Experimental/3D
Country: France
Premiere: May 22, 2014 – Cannes Film Festival
US Theatrical Release: October 29, 2014
US Distributor: Kino Lorber

Citizenfour

7/11/2014

by Kathie Smith

The only thing that disappoints me more than the U.S. government’s systematic encroachment on civil liberties is the blasé acceptance of this intrusion by the voting rank and file. Since 9/11, a blanket of surveillance has quietly and somewhat sinisterly cloaked the globe, all in the name of “national security,” courtesy of some diplomatic swashbuckling otherwise known as the Patriot Act. As it turns out, heavy doses of fear mongering worked hand-in-hand with the world’s growing dependence on (and blind trust in) digital technology to create a spy web built on algorithms rather than cold war flesh and blood. The unwitting disclosure of your credit card, cell phone, and computer IP address not only created a haven for marketers (powered by Google) but also a culture that allowed for governing bodies to try their hand at mass data collection. Add social security numbers, passport and ID numbers, and snail mail monitoring to the mix of accessible information, and you have a Big Brother that can pinpoint your location, activities and interests at a flip of a switch.

Edina Cinema

Director: Laura Poitras
Producers: Mathilde Bonnefoy, Laura Poitras, Dirk Wilutzky
Cinematographers: Kirsten Johnson, Trevor Paglen, Laura Poitras, Katy Scoggin
Editor: Mathilde Bonnefoy
Cast: Edward Snowden, Glenn Greenwald, William Binney, Jacob Appelbaum, Julian Assange, Jeremy Scahill, Laura Poitras

Runtime: 114m.
Genre: Documentary
Country: Germany/USA
Premiere: October 10, 2014 – New York Film Festival
US Theatrical Release: October 24, 2014
US Distributor: RADiUS-TWC

Force majeure

31/10/2014

by Kathie Smith

No more than 15 minutes into Ruben Östlund’s Force majeure, we are faced with an unexpected tragedy: a controlled avalanche (something quite opposite to force majeure, a contractual term meaning “Act of God”) makes its way down a mountain slope towards an open air restaurant as it quickly gets larger, faster and closer. The patrons, including the family of four at the center of the movie, passively look on as interest turns to fascination, fascination turns to fear, and fear turns to the adrenal induced instincts of the father, mother and their two terrified children. A still shot gives the audience an omniscient eye to an incident that, in its aftermath, transforms into a slow motion emotional train wreck, skewering and manipulating the picture-perfect family unit.

Edina Cinema

Director: Ruben Östlund
Producers: Erik Hemmendorff, Marie Kjellson
Writer: Ruben Östlund
Cinematographer: Fredrik Wenzel
Editor: Jacob Secher Schulsinger
Music: Ola Fløttum
Cast: Johannes Kuhnke, Lisa Loven Kongsli, Clara Wettergren, Vincent Wettergren, Brady Corbet, Jakob Granqvist, Kristofer Hivju, Fanni Metelius

Runtime: 118m.
Genre: Drama/Comedy
Country: Sweden/France/Denmark/Norway
Premiere: May 18, 2014 – Cannes Film Festival
US Theatrical Release: October 24, 2014
US Distributor: Magnolia Pictures

White Bird in a Blizzard

24/10/2014

by Kathie Smith

From its very first moments, White Bird in a Blizzard submerges us in a dream-pop atmosphere delightfully tinged with both mystery and danger. Led by the sounds of the Cocteau Twins, we are introduced to Kat (Shailene Woodley) as she comes home to find her mother, Eve (Eva Green), one step closer to coming unhinged. Dressed to the nines, her mom is curled up on Kat’s bed in a catatonic fog of housewife syndrome, robotically getting up to fix dinner. Shortly after, instead of continuing a descent into madness, Kat’s mother quite suddenly, yet maybe not surprisingly, disappears. The hole left by her mother, a space that was already vacant in Kat’s life, becomes filled with the unresolved mystery of Eve’s discontent as well as her whereabouts, churned by the push-pull anxiety-apathy of being a teenager.

Edina Cinema

Director: Gregg Araki
Producers: Gregg Araki, Pascal Caucheteux, Pavlina Hatoupis, Sebastien Lemercier, Alix Madigan
Writers: Gregg Araki, Laura Kasischke
Cinematographer: Sandra Valde-Hansen
Music: Harold Budd, Robin Guthrie
Cast: Shailene Woodley, Eva Green, Christopher Meloni, Shiloh Fernandez, Angela Bassett, Thomas Jane, Gabourey Sidibe, Mark Indelicato, Sheryl Lee, Dale Dickey

Runtime: 91m.
Genre: Drama/Thriller
Country: France/USA
Premiere: January 20, 2014 – Sundance Film Festival
US Theatrical Release: October 24, 2014
US Distributor: Magnolia Pictures