Tag Archives: seth rogen

Images of the Week – Funny People

Written by . Posted on April 25, 2012. Filed under Images of the Week. Tagged , , , . No comments.

From Judd Apatow’s Funny People (2009).

The last shot of Funny People always troubled me. Apatow’s daring and uncompromising portrayal of Adam Sandler’s megalomaniac ‘George Simmons’ is neutered by a gesture of humility when he meets with Rogen’s character on his own turf, a supermarket deli. However, even if Apatow’s mise en scène isn’t meticulous or the source of what’s great in his cinema (as Richard Brody points out, his genius is to put funny people on camera), Funny People certainly reveals that at times he can be visually careful, and this last shot clearly is. I now realize the intention of this shot, as it it pulls back, minimizing the two comic leads, and figuring them within a frame where they become dominated by real life & real people. Apatow, on several levels, has spent the film explaining what it is to be a comic—the good, the bad, and the ugly side of it. Finally, he is able to situate these types of people he has distinguished back into the real world, into the background, just people.

Viewing Dairy – Paul, Rango

Written by . Posted on March 19, 2011. Filed under Reviews, Viewing Diary. Tagged , , , , , , . No comments.

Paul (2011)

Dir. Greg Mottola

The on-screen duo of Simon Pegg and Nick Frost is a unique one. Two real-life best friends who make each other laugh have become famous comedic presences simply from making fun work that embraces their geeky sensibilities. With the wonderful TV series Spaced and their two hilarious parodies Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, they have mostly succeeded as a trio with filmmaker Edgar Wright. Together, their authentic friendships have brought a natural emotional center to their primarily comically oriented work. With Paul, directed by the American auteur Greg Mottola, responsible for Adventureland, one of the best films from the last decade, it is an outsider eye making a film partly about this friendship and its’ warm chemistry. The films scores extra points for transforming the Comic-Con-goer from just being a fan to being a legitimate movie lead. This is a film of modest aim with a handful of small problems (a couple awkward characterizations, a hit-or-miss musical score) that represents an acceptable step back for Mottola.

References to Steven Spielberg’s films are plentiful and range from subtler touches like adopting traces of the auteur’s mise en scène to an actual voice-over cameo from the man himself. Mottola borrows Spielberg’s way of introducing the antagonizing adults in E.T., showing only the feet and flashlight of a FBI agent hot on the trail of the fugitive alien, Paul. There are also a couple references to John Williams’ musical scores, such as an obvious Close Encounters moment, but the more clever moment has a band with unlikely instrumentation playing the song from the Star Wars Cantina in A New Hope (a joke admittedly made firstly by Trey Parker in Team America). Mottola makes his inspiration abundantly clear when a small-town cinema in Paul has two films listed on its’ marquee: Duel and Easy Rider.

Like with Easy Rider, the two friends who traverse America in Paul are assaulted by American hegemony and institution. At once, the characters are being chased on the road by the FBI and a bible-thumper with a shotty. They also encounter two disgruntled rednecks in an Area 51-themed bar. The film strongly asserts itself against American ignorance with Kristen Wiig’s character Ruth, at first a devout Christian when forcibly added to our group of RV-bound fugitives, with a pair of glasses  that covers her one blind eye with a shaded lens, symbolizing her narrow view. Then Paul works some alien mojo on her, sharing his consciousness and collective experience with her, as well as correcting her bad eye, shattering her religious views in the process. Later in the film, an FBI agent played by Bill Hader (Mottola’s good luck charm who also appeared in his last two films) is violently pursuing Paul and his accomplices and has one of the lenses of his sunglasses knocked out, recreating the symbol of ignorance that donned Wiig earlier on. As Paul ultimately doesn’t fully characterize an antagonist, it is as if this ignorance is the antagonistic force of the film, made tangible through several characters. Paul himself spreads the antidote of consciousness, a figure of liberation in the form of a cinematic archetype.

Rango (2011)

Dir. Gore Verbinski

Gore Verbinski’s post-modernist foray into animation is unexpectedly fortuitous. The splendidly oddball Rango is a meticulously crafted, thoughtful work of popular art that surpasses everything else the otherwise unremarkable filmmaker has done, and is a strong early front-runner for animated film of the year (considering Pixar’s offering this year is Cars 2…). The film is inventive and consistently entertaining but is most satisfying with its’ surprisingly layered structure. Rango has a political edge and an existential core. Using water as a metaphor for wealth (has Verbinski even seen Film Socialisme?), the film critiques America’s economic system (the bigwigs of the small town in Rango even play golf, the smug, privileged bastards) and climaxes with a redistribution of said wealth. It should be noted that Rango ingeniously uses Las Vegas as a symbol, evoking two American masterpieces from 1995: Casino and Showgirls. The title character, meanwhile, has an arc from complete alienation to existential certainty that is well handled.

The animation is really quite something, with really fluid motion. The character designs are original and are distinguished from the usual “cute-sification” of animals in animation. and there are flourishes of brilliance such as when Rango is “freed” from his terrarium in a breathtaking sequence at the onset of the film, or during a brief and delightfully absurd dream, or in a particularly beautiful sequence that finds Rango wandering through the desert at night. The film is referential but not in a banal, random sense (Family Guy, Shrek). The ensemble cast is one of the most impressive as far as animated films go with a great lead performance from Depp and also with nice bits from the likes of Ray Winstone and Harry Dean Stanton. Timothy Olymphant’s voice shows up in a scene with a (visual only) cameo from Clint Eastwood/The Man With No Name. The patriarchal staple offers the protagonist words of wisdom then pimps away in a golf cart full of Oscars. Absurd genius.

 

Viewing Diary – The Green Hornet, Blue Valentine, Somewhere

Written by . Posted on January 24, 2011. Filed under Reviews, Viewing Diary. Tagged , , , , . No comments.

Green Hornet

The Green Hornet (2011)

Dir. Michel Gondry

Michel Gondry’s qualities are more limited than some would have you believe but his understanding of the physical properties of his mise en scène is a virtue that impresses, obvious though it may be. This makes Gondry one of the first natural matches for 3D and The Green Hornet is probably my favourite film in the context of the format (don’t mistake this as meaning it’s my favourite film released in 3D, which would probably be Toy Story 3, but instead for being a film that finally merits the 3D treatment). Gondry is more interested in how depth of field and editing techniques can be naturally woven into the format. A standout sequence features a brilliant use of split screen as news of a bounty on the film’s hero spreads through the criminal underworld. It’s a good film, but more importantly it’s an interesting one and I found myself laughing along with (not at) Rogen at the absurdity of his appearance in the superhero blockbuster.

While Gondry’s style somewhat lends itself to 3D, Rogen’s stereotype is stuck in a world he doesn’t belong, having been previously confined to the flat (but appropriate) staging in the Apatows. It is this nonsensical juxtaposition that gives The Green Hornet an unexpected edge. Seeing Rogen amongst all the tech, all the action, all the effects, and much more serious personalities than he (cue Edward James Olmos & Tom Wilkinson) is odd enough but the third dimension added to the film makes it utterly bizarre. The film reveals the disturbing logic behind studio execs who here have signed on to a project against all logic other than the profit margin guaranteed by the film’s star. It sounds like it should be a disaster but Gondry is too clever for that. Everything in the movie feels like a jab against the powers that be. That’s not to say this is a full-on work of satire, but it is sly and witty. Gondry is interested in undermining the staus quo and even playing with the psyche of the mindless superhero fans. Gondry & Rogen have been given keys to the playhouse and they’re going to have some fun and always on their own terms. This is what makes it work. The authors of the film are delighted by their own fortune to be in such a position and Rogen refuses to transcend his image, instead channeling the disbelief of being a masked hero into his script and performance.  As a genuinely fun diversion and a true Hollywood curiosity, The Green Hornet succeeds.

Blue Valentine (2010)

Dir. Derek Cianfrance

While neither quite as raw nor actor-driven as the trailer lead me to expect, Blue Valentine is still a penetrating look at an eternal malady of human nature and the film’s clumsiness can be forgiven for its fervency in committing to accuracy in favour of all else. Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams are each top artists in their fields and are in top form here even if they’re not given the free range they have been afforded in the past (Half Nelson, Wendy & Lucy). Director Cianfrance initiates a central dynamic at the heart of this collapsing love story right at the outset: the dilemma of independent journeys within a codependent relationship. We observe Gosling and Williams at odds with each other to begin the day and their subsequent routines carried out separately throughout the day. It’s a day like any other but with a small tragedy as its centerpiece. The two-days-in–the-life of this disintegrating couple is juxtaposed with flashbacks to the origins of their relationship, revealing few answers in this contrast but raising many questions. If nothing else, Valentine provides the potential of emotional catharsis and introspection.

Somewhere (2010)

Dir. Sofia Coppola

It is rather refreshing to be reminded of the Antonioni quote, “Hollywood is like being nowhere and talking to nobody about nothing” by a Hollywood film, not for its’ leading-by-example but from thematic observation. That Somewhere is made by the daughter of one of the pinnacle Hollywood auteurs makes it especially pointed. It is a major step forward for Sofia Coppola and it helps crystallize the missteps of her breakthrough film, Lost in Translation, for which my initial enthusiasm has dampened since its release. The enduring strong point of that is the affecting presence of Bill Murray, but even that success is marginal when observing how Coppola manages Stephen Dorff in Somewhere, clearly having matured as a director. Blue Valentine is an appropriate week-of-release contemporary as both films convey truthful, dark slices of life. However, Somewhere is the clear superior, and Coppola’s quiet but calculated form makes it one of the stronger films of 2010 (or, the strongest of 2011 thus far, depending on your perspective). The impressive opening shot of the film establishes a car motif, which reprises throughout the film and culminates in a final shot in which the oppressed-and-alienated Dorff transcends his Hollywood restraints and can finally smile at what comes next, much like the auteur herself who has come into her own as a major American filmmaker. They’re both finally going somewhere.