Election
Unlike his later masterpieces About Schmidt and Sideways, this film lacks existential gravity. Instead of directing it as a comedy, Payne should have cast it as a drama with comic scenes. This is the style he uses in his later movies. But you can see already here Payne’s immense ability to bring onto the screen the social psychology of contemporary America.
Kinsey
Kinsey is quilt-like, stringing together scenes that are crafted with brillance and others that are poorly conceived and enacted. I wish the writer-director had spent a little more time removing the occasional second rate material from the film. What makes the movie charming is our amazement about how far western society has travelled in only 60 years when it comes to talking and thinking about sex. Kinsey interviewed thousands of Americans of all races and classes in the 1940s and recorded their sexual biographies. The strongest scene in the entire film happens shortly after Kinsey’s mother passes away and when Kinsey asks his unappreciating, dictatorial father to sit for one these scientific interviews. To appreciate the situation, think about how you would react to finding out everything about your parent’s sexual history…
The Bourne Surpremacy
This is one the best action based dramas I have seen in a long time. The sequel is dramatically better than the first film in the franchise, The Bourne Identity. Call it a James Bond movie for the adult mind. 007 is not a real human being and his employer, the British secret service, is not a real bureaucratic organization. Unlike real humans beings James Bond does not fall in love with any of the beautiful women he has “relations” with. One exception: Once Bond does fall in love with his female counterpart (Diana Riggs) and gets married. But conveniently his wife is killled on the way to the honeymoon so that James is “free” for another beautiful woman in the next movie. The British secret service similarly is a fictionalized organization in which every employee like a good soldier works toward a common goal. Jason Bourne, by contrast, fell in love in the Bourne Identity and he works for an fractionalized and infighting CIA.
Sideways
Some time ago I came to the conclusion that film is the highest art form for it can combine all means of communication: words, pictures and music. It comes closest to how we actually experience life and in the hands of a competent director, movies can make you forget completely your own reality for two hours. Watching Alexander Payne’s Sideways reaffirmed my conviction that film is the pinnacle of art. Payne is one of the masters of contemporary cinema. He picks excellent novels and then turns them into fantastic motion pictures. Sideways just like his previous masterpiece About Schmidt reaches deep into the human heart. Two college buddies who have seen better days spend seven days touring the wine region around Santa Barbara, California. Jack is about to get married in a week and his old buddy Miles, who is deeply depressed over his failed marriage, wants to take Jack out for a week of prenuptial fun. On the surface, Jack in his happy-go-lucky way seems to be the polar opposite of Miles and his pessimistic approach to life. But both of them are joined at the hip in their ability to screw things up for themselves. While Mile’s notion of a fun week means tasting a lot of good wine and playing some golf, Jack is eager to revise his buddies plans in unpredictable ways. Jack diagnoses on the second morning of their weeklong journey that both of them badly need to get some action during this week. Joining them for a week in California is richly rewarding because Payne embellishes the California landscape with beautiful drama and music. If you are a wine connoisseur, this is definitely a movie you will savor.
The Notebook
I asked the stewardess just after the plane had taken off: “Do you know what movie is going to be shown today?” “The Notebook,” she replied. “It is a chick flick, but it is really good.” The film turned out to be a love story where everything goes right. When misfortune seems to deliver a fatal blow to the bliss of the charming young lovers, a force intervenes to keep the story moving toward its happy end. If you want to take a break from the challenges of earthly romantic life, this film provides you an escape into fantasyland. The big advantage over “Titanic” is that the fiance who stands between the match made in heaven is a real nice guy. But don’t expect to get a deeper appreciation of your own life. This is all about what life could be…if it were a fantasy.
Fahrenheit 9/11
Anyone who expects a documentary in the style of Ken Burns will be disappointed. There is no true analysis of why almost half of the electorate still seems to supporting Bush a few days before the election. Michael Moore has copied the methods of the Bush Whitehouse and engages in his own kind of propaganda. He turns the George Bush presidentcy into a farce. There are a few funny lines that will make you laugh unless you are George Bush. The first half of the film about the Saudi connection to Bin Laden and the Bushs is weaker than the second part where Moore turns the camera on the war in Iraq. He features a soldier who will rather go to jail than go back for a second tour in the Iraq war and a mother who lost her son in Iraq and is mad as hell. If Bush loses next week, the decision to invade Iraq will be the chief reason, giving Michael Moore a beautiful opening to help film him out of the office.
Before Sunrise
After watching its sequel Before Sunset, I wanted to see the first part of the story. A young American (Ethan Hawke) and a young French student (Julie Delpy) meet in a train. She decides not go on to Paris as planned but step out of the train with him in Vienna and spend the evening together before his plane takes off for America. Now we follow them on a romantic adventure through Vienna. Before Sunrise is both better and worse than its sequel, Before Sunset. It is better because the director paced the movie much more effectively and used the glorious architecture of Vienna to surround the narrative with a romantic canvass.
Before Sunset
Do not read this review before reading my review of its predecessor film “Before Sunset.” Nine years ago two young people spent, we are told, an amazing night in Vienna togehter. To play with fortune they did not exchange phone numbers but promised each other to meet on a particular day six months later in Vienna. He goes to Vienna, but she does not show up. Later he feels compelled to write a book about this amazing evening they enjoyed in Vienna. Now he is on a tour promoting the book and the last stop in Europe is a reading in a small bookshop in Paris. At the end of his reading she is suddenly standing in the back of the audience. He only has a little bit of time before his limo is scheduled to take him to the airport. She agrees to his proposal to go to a cafe and catch up… Before Sunrise is almost perfect.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Two people hit a wall in their romantic relationship. But medical science offers a rather painless way out. Simply remove all memories of the other person. For her it works. But for him it is much more difficult to let go. This is an interesting film for a number of reasons: It takes you until to end to figure out what is real within the fiction. Second, Jim Carrey for once does not overdo his acting. Kate Winslet gives a fantastic performance as an impulsive red-haired bubble head. And most appealingly, it portrays life-together and love in a nuanced way.
The Prince & Me
It is a regular fairy tale, but there a few clever twists. The writers located most of the action in Wisconsin. A playboy Daenisch prince discovers a farm girl who does not like dating because it could interfere with her going to medical school. She turns him into an responsible adult and is invited to live the life of a princess in Danmark. I don’t recommend this film but if you happen to be stuck in an airplane and you like romance movies, I can report that the film has a few good lines.
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