Australia

Baz Luhrmann is not a director who is known for subtlety. Previous films like Romeo and Juliet, and Moulin Rouge, have established Luhrmann is a true believer in the spectacle style film, and his newest, Australia, is the next logical step. The Aussie director's love affair with his native land seems like a great reason to make a beautiful, sprawling epic centered around a piece of its rich and colorful history.

The film focuses on Lady Sarah Ashley, a member of the English upper class, soon to be destitute if she can't convince her husband to sell his "project" property in Australia. She flies to the great down under to demand that he sell his cattle ranch to the local cattle monopoly run by King Carney. She arrives to an "uncivilized" group of ranch hands, brawling over the right for an aboriginal to enter a local bar. One of the fighters is a man named Drover, played by Hugh Jackman. He is her escort to the northern outback where her husbands property lies. When they get out there, they find her husband dead. She soon discovers that, through his henchman Neil Fletcher, King Carney has been stealing cattle and working to force Lord Ashley into selling him the ranch. Lady Ashley enlists Drover and a rag tag group of aboriginal's and ranch hands to help her drive the remaining cattle to the waterfront to sell to the English Navy, so that she can earn a contract that will save the ranch. But when all of this is done, there's also another whole story about World War 2, and the Japanese attack on the waterfront, and on and on and on...

And that was really my problem with this film. At two and a half hours, you feel its length, especially when it could have been a simple story about a woman trying to save a ranch. Luhrmann, though, in love with John Ford western's and the epic drama's of post war Hollywood, no doubt thought it necessary to deliver us SEVERAL stories in one. I enjoyed some of the first hour and a half or so of this film, but then it just kept going and going and going. 

On the note of post war Hollywood epic's, one is left wondering something - Is Australia's style a necessity in this age? To me, there is a reason why movie's are not made in this style anymore. You rarely see a film where everyone is lit perfectly, deliver's their lines very clearly, where the sweeping vista's don't seem like a natural part of the film, but, instead, scream out - LOOK AT ME! We see how people have adopted various styles, especially the 70's grit and grime, but I think there is a real reason why you don't see more of these epic's - People aren't that interested. They seem kind of trite and cliched, and like furniture that has its plastic wrap still on it. Do I respect Luhrmann for making a film like this? Yes. He had a vision and brought it to life in grand form. Did I like it, though? No. It was long, and boring in some parts, and some parts were an incredible waste of time. that being said, I'm always interested in seeing what Luhrmann has up his sleeve next. I think that he is a truly unique visionary, even if his visions sometimes fail.

GREATEST STAR WARS FAN VIDEO EVER!

Josh tweeted this -


Star Wars: Retold (by someone who hasn't seen it) from Joe Nicolosi on Vimeo.

Clayton Cubitt's "By Your Side"

Another Vimeo discovery. Cubitt only has a few video's up, but I am really looking forward to him posting more -


By Your Side from Clayton Cubitt on Vimeo.

575 - "You gotta give 'em hope..."

I came across this video on Blake Whitman's blog (he works for Vimeo, the BEST video site on the net). It is a quiet and meditative look at the recreation of Harvey Milk's camera shop at 575 Castro St. in San Francisco, for Gus Van Sant's biopic Milk (which was reviewed here). This film is amazing, and amazingly simple. Primarily made up of static shots, with light being the only motion, and with the audio of Milk's final, taped message before his assassination by Dan White, 575 Castro St. is, at once, intimate and heartbreakingly beautiful. 

575 Castro St. from FilmInFocus on Vimeo.

Slumdog Millionaire

It's been on everyone's "best of" list for the year, and has been heaped with praise. Now, Danny Boyle, in my opinion, is one of the most underrated director's working right now. He seems to get very little attention or credit for his amazing body of work. Almost everything he's done has been great, from the 90's drug staple Trainspotting, to the movie that rebooted the zombie genre 28 Days Later, to the (in my opinion) SEVERELY underrated sci-fi thriller Sunshine. Boyle continues to amaze in everything he does, and while Slumdog Millionaire is an enjoyable film, it is, in my opinion, one of the least of his films, and definitely not worth the massive amounts of praise that is heaped on it.

The story concerns the life of Jamal, a young man who gets a chance to make a million dollars on India's version of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire. He makes it to the final round, but before he can take the stage, he is abducted by local police who try to torture him into confessing that he is cheating. Instead, he recounts his childhood, and how (almost) every question that is asked of him has some sort of personal story from his life attached to it, and how, ultimately, he is only trying to win the game so that he can rescue the love of his life, Latika, from a ruthless gangster. Jamal's stories range from when he was a young boy, with his brother Salim, to his current situation as a "lowest man on the totem pole" at a customer service call in center.

Don't take me the wrong way, Slumdog Millionaire is a great film. Although it's destiny driven message is, at times, a little heavy handed, ultimately it is an uplifting film about humanity and the power of love. That being said, I think there are a lot of other BETTER films that have come out this year that deserve to be called the best of the year. Boyle delivers something entertaining, but not amazing. Personally, I think Millions was just as good, or possibly better, but that's probably just a personal thing (seeing as how everyone seems to hate Millions but me...)

Milk

Gus Van Sant has been one of the most consistently good filmmakers of the last twenty plus years. From his breakout film Drugstore Cowboy, to his Oscar winner Good Will Hunting, to his critically acclaimed trilogy about death (Gerry, Elephant,  and Last Days), Van Sant has made a lot of great films on a small, independent scale. Milk is probably the closest he's ever really gotten to making a mainstream movie, and may be the closest he will ever get.

Milk is the story of Harvey Milk, San Francisco's first openly gay city official. It picks up Harvey's story on the night of his fortieth birthday in New York City, when he meets Scott Smith(played by James Franco), the man who will, effectively, become the great love of Harvey's life. Harvey and Scott eventually migrate to San Francisco to be a part of a more gay-friendly environment, and settle in the Castro district. As time goes on, Harvey see's so many things about his environment that he wants to change, but, in order to do so, he must gain the power to do so. In order to do this, he runs for a city supervisor position and loses. Every few years he runs again and again, and loses again and again. By this time, he has become famous in his community, but when he decides to run one more time, he loses Scott, who walks out on him, sick of having to deal with Harvey giving all of himself to politics. It is then that Harvey wins the position. When he takes his seat, he meets, and tries to allign with another newly elected supervisor - Dan White(played by Josh Brolin). Harvey tries to support Dan, but eventually begins to become more and more famous, and more and more adamant about changing the city's laws and treatment towards the homosexual population. This causes friction between Dan and Harvey, and eventually, after losing his job, Dan comes back to City Hall for Harvey, with a gun.

Milk is an interesting film from a historical perspective. It made me realize that the homosexual population, especially in America, have there own history, their own hero's and villian's. All of the actor's did an exceptional job, though sometimes it feels like Sean Penn's Harvey Milk seemed to be schizophrenically flamboyant. One moment he would be the serious politician looking to change things, and the next he came off as almost a Hollywood stereotype (though I do stand by the fact that stereotypes are born out of truth, and therefore there may have been truth to Penn's flamboyance). Ultimately, though, the film suffered the fate of many recent biopics - it was just kind of boring. I mean, Van Sant did all the right things - used period news reel footage, included the most interesting and relevant parts, and gave us characters we could cheer for but, still, something was just missing. I think that, ultimately, the biopic (in general) suffers from the fact that, ultimately, you know what the outcome is. It's so hard to find a story to tell that someone either doesn't know the outcome of, or couldn't hit up wikipedia or google to find every last ounce of relevant information to. Milk is a good film, and certainly a good addition to Van Sant's resume, but I found myself, at the end, saying "Alright", getting out of my seat, walking out of the theater and not caring about anything I saw for the last two hours just like I have with almost every biopic I've seen in the last couple of years.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

David Fincher is one of the great director's of his generation. Although he hasn't made that many films, as compared to the filmmakers that started coming out around his time (Steven Soderbergh, Richard Linklater, Kevin Smith), all of his films (short of the studio cannibalised  Alien 3) have been amazing works of art. He has made countless television commercials and music videos, and continues to expand his visual grammar. With The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, though, he's brought a softer edged humanity to his story telling, with the help of source material by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Button is the story of one man's life, lived physically in reverse. He is born the average weight and size of a new born, but with all of the characteristics of a man well into his eighties. He spends his early life fighting geriatric ailments, living in an old folks home, and believing himself to be just like those around him. As he grows older, though, he grows physically younger, feeling constantly out of place as he maneuvers his way through an ever changing world. He constantly opens himself up to new encounters, and new loves, but is always forced to give up those things which he loves the most.

And that is the key to Button. If there is a single message in the film it is that death, and letting go of the things you love the most in life, is a natural part of life. It happens to everyone, and can not be controlled. Button is a heartbreaking film, and, as the title character, Brad Pitt brings an unbelievable earnestness to Benjamin, a simple man who always seems to be happy to simply experience life. Fincher puts on an incredible patina to the entire film, making you feel, more than almost any other film I've ever seen, that you are right there in that moment with Benjamin. Cate Blanchett plays Daisy, Benjamin's life long love interest with absolute honesty and clarity. She is the person you fall in love with, and lose, but you never really lose them in your heart. Benjamin is lucky enough, though, that he and Daisy always seem to find each other.

I think the one thing that surprised me the most about Button, though, was the importance of women in Benjamin's life. You never seem him have any guy friends. There is no real father figure (even his real father never really gets to act the part). The film is, in fact, completely about the women in Benjamin's life - Queenie, the woman who becomes his mother after he's abandoned at birth, Daisy, his life long love, and Elizabeth, a relationship he has while working as a sailor in Russia. Love, in this film, whether familial or romantic, is the number one message of this film - You may get only one chance to seize your moment with someone. If your lucky, and you screw up the first one, you might get a second, but its best to take the chance when you have it. Life doesn't last forever, and whether your young or old, you WILL lose everything and everyone you love in the end. Love them while you have them. Make today the day.

I want to end this review with this phrase that Benjamin writes to his daughter - "If you find yourself living a life your not proud of, I hope you have the strength to start over".