Hi everyone!
I apologize for not keeping up-to-date with this over the past month. I've had a lot going on, what with my new job as Executive Editor at the Flagship imprint of ABA Publishing, the publishing arm of the American Bar Association, and rehearsals for the workshop of my new play "Children of Privilege" which my cast and I presented last week to some acclaim. I'm still hard at work on both fronts. The new job is going very well and I'm in the midst of some revisions and rewrites on the play. I'll keep you posted as things progress.
So this blog...it's been almost a year since I launched it last Thanksgiving. It's certainly evolved over the past eleven months: from current affairs to cultural musings and reviews. I guess you could say I'm still trying to find the right balance. Today I'm going to try something new--a top 5 list of my favorite things on any given day and 1 thing I'm not so crazy about. Here goes:
TOP 5 THINGS I'M CRAZY ABOUT ON 10/29/12 (IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER):
1) Voting early -- I cast my ballot this afternoon: no wait, no hassle, and in and out of the polling booth in under fifteen minutes.
2) "Argo" -- if you haven't seen this film yet, go see it. Ben Affleck does a fantastic job both directing and starring in this historical political thriller that hearkens back in look and feel to the great political dramas of the 1970s. Great story, great acting, great documentary-like camerawork. I was eight years-old during the Iranian hostage crisis in 1979. This film sheds light on a little-known aspect of that crisis and brilliantly captures the tension, fear, and uncertainty of that time. The final half-hour had me on the edge of my seat.
3) My iPhone 5 -- I was a fan of the Droid but it's no comparison to the iPhone 5. Enough said.
4) "Monsieur Lazhar" -- another film. This French-language Canadian film was Oscar-nominated this year for Best Foreign Film. I streamed it on Netflix over the weekend. I'm a sucker for teacher/student dramas and this certainly fit that bill: the story of an Algerian asylum-seeker who takes over a teaching position at a middle school in Montreal after a teacher has committed suicide. It's subtle, quiet, heart-warming, and devastating at the same time. Check it out!
5) Manchester United's 3-2 victory over Chelsea at Stafford Bridge yesterday in the Barclay's Premiere League. I'm a fan of both teams but with Robin von Persie and Wayne Rooney on the pitch together, Man U is hard to beat. They could go all the way this year!
WHAT I'M NOT SO CRAZY ABOUT TODAY:
The Steve McQueen retrospective that just opened at the Art Institute of Chicago. No, not that Steve McQueen. This Steve McQueen is the slightly avant-garde British film director, best known for two feature films, the IRA biopic "Hunger" and last year's award-winning "Shame," which was one of my pics for best film of 2011. Suffice it to say this retrospective left me a little baffled. I wandered through the very dark gallery in a state of confusion, pausing every so often to watch glimpses of 12 short Super 8 videos about, well, nothing. The gallery is practically pitch-black. I almost walked into someone...twice. And the docents mostly stood around and laughed at the grainy film of two naked male wrestlers (one of whom was Mr. McQueen) projected on a very large screen. I dunno. I didn't get it. I respect Mr. McQueen very much as a feature film director but was this retrospective really necessary? It's taking up prime real estate at the Art Institute through January.
Ciao.
Showing posts with label Steve McQueen. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Steve McQueen. Show all posts
Monday, October 29, 2012
Sunday, December 4, 2011
Movie Review: Shame
Hi everyone! Hope y'all are having a good weekend.
Pretty quiet here...getting the apartment decorated for Christmas, catching up on some reading, errands, etc. I did get a chance yesterday to see British director Steve McQueen's controversial new film "Shame" starring Michael Fassbender and Carey Mulligan. While it's certainly not for everyone, I'm going to go out on a limb here and say I think it's definitely one of the best films of 2011.
What makes this film so great are the two standout performances of its lead actors. Mr. Fassbender is sleek, suave, and eerily seductive as Brandon, a thirtysomething Manhattan corporate professional with a sex addiction that increasingly comes to dominate his life and isolates him from anything and anyone who might attempt to care for him, chiefly his sister Cissy--played by the remarkable Ms. Mulligan--a troubled nightclub singer who moves into Brandon's apartment for reasons that are never really explained. The film unflinchingly but ever so stylishly depicts Brandon and Cissy's relationship as their lives spiral out of control.
While some may find fault with Mr. McQueen's decision not to dwell on a backstory for these characters--i.e. we never really learn anything about Brandon and Cissy beyond what transpires onscreen and a passing mention of the fact that both had grown up in New Jersey--I loved the fact that we are thrown into the middle of the action and are forced to deal with Brandon and Cissy on the basis of what we witness as opposed to what we are told. It's a risky decision as it may make us less sympathetic to their very real tragedies since we never know what brought them on. But what makes this narrative device--and the film as a whole--work so beautifully is the subtle and nuanced performances of Fassbender and Mulligan. You feel their frustration, their desperation, their pain even as you are often repulsed by their behavior or just merely baffled. Is there an incestuous connection between them? Are both victims of earlier sexual abuse? Again and again you find yourself asking these questions but the film never provides answers. And while some might find this a flaw, I respected the decision not to burden us with what could quite easily have become cliche.
"Shame" is a film full of quiet moments and arresting images and yes, there is even some humor, not to mention one of the most bizarre and irritating renditions of the song "New York, New York" ever committed to celluloid. And yes, there is sex--NC-17 rated sex which leaves very little to the imagination. However, while some of it is quite shocking, I never found it to be gratuitous. Brandon and Cissy are creatures of extremes. In less capable hands, one might be inclined to view them with something more akin to contempt than sympathy. But instead, I came to feel quite deeply for them, and while the ending is not necessarily surprising given what's come before it, I found the final scenes quietly devastating.
Like it or hate it--and I liked it...a lot--"Shame" leaves an impression that isn't easy to shake. As far as emotional impact on the viewer, of all the films I've seen this year, only Lars von Trier's "Melancholia" tops "Shame" in terms of wrenching sheer emotion from the viewer. Neither of these films are going to appeal to the masses, but as far as a truly visceral, unique cinematic experience, it doesn't get much better than this.
Ciao.
QUESTION OF THE DAY: "When you go to the movies, what are you hoping to experience first and foremost: sheer entertainment that doesn't require you to think, or an emotional experience that causes you to question your values and/or your perception of life?"
Pretty quiet here...getting the apartment decorated for Christmas, catching up on some reading, errands, etc. I did get a chance yesterday to see British director Steve McQueen's controversial new film "Shame" starring Michael Fassbender and Carey Mulligan. While it's certainly not for everyone, I'm going to go out on a limb here and say I think it's definitely one of the best films of 2011.
What makes this film so great are the two standout performances of its lead actors. Mr. Fassbender is sleek, suave, and eerily seductive as Brandon, a thirtysomething Manhattan corporate professional with a sex addiction that increasingly comes to dominate his life and isolates him from anything and anyone who might attempt to care for him, chiefly his sister Cissy--played by the remarkable Ms. Mulligan--a troubled nightclub singer who moves into Brandon's apartment for reasons that are never really explained. The film unflinchingly but ever so stylishly depicts Brandon and Cissy's relationship as their lives spiral out of control.
While some may find fault with Mr. McQueen's decision not to dwell on a backstory for these characters--i.e. we never really learn anything about Brandon and Cissy beyond what transpires onscreen and a passing mention of the fact that both had grown up in New Jersey--I loved the fact that we are thrown into the middle of the action and are forced to deal with Brandon and Cissy on the basis of what we witness as opposed to what we are told. It's a risky decision as it may make us less sympathetic to their very real tragedies since we never know what brought them on. But what makes this narrative device--and the film as a whole--work so beautifully is the subtle and nuanced performances of Fassbender and Mulligan. You feel their frustration, their desperation, their pain even as you are often repulsed by their behavior or just merely baffled. Is there an incestuous connection between them? Are both victims of earlier sexual abuse? Again and again you find yourself asking these questions but the film never provides answers. And while some might find this a flaw, I respected the decision not to burden us with what could quite easily have become cliche.
"Shame" is a film full of quiet moments and arresting images and yes, there is even some humor, not to mention one of the most bizarre and irritating renditions of the song "New York, New York" ever committed to celluloid. And yes, there is sex--NC-17 rated sex which leaves very little to the imagination. However, while some of it is quite shocking, I never found it to be gratuitous. Brandon and Cissy are creatures of extremes. In less capable hands, one might be inclined to view them with something more akin to contempt than sympathy. But instead, I came to feel quite deeply for them, and while the ending is not necessarily surprising given what's come before it, I found the final scenes quietly devastating.
Like it or hate it--and I liked it...a lot--"Shame" leaves an impression that isn't easy to shake. As far as emotional impact on the viewer, of all the films I've seen this year, only Lars von Trier's "Melancholia" tops "Shame" in terms of wrenching sheer emotion from the viewer. Neither of these films are going to appeal to the masses, but as far as a truly visceral, unique cinematic experience, it doesn't get much better than this.
Ciao.
QUESTION OF THE DAY: "When you go to the movies, what are you hoping to experience first and foremost: sheer entertainment that doesn't require you to think, or an emotional experience that causes you to question your values and/or your perception of life?"
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