Heat Wave.

Head over to PopMatters and read my review for My Week with Marilyn.

J. Edgar *½

Director: Clint Eastwood
Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Armie Hammer, Naomi Watts
Judi Dench, Josh Lucas, Ed Westwick, Jeffrey Donovan, Denis O'Hare

Somewhere between his cross-dressing and legacy as one of the most controversial figures in 20th century history, J. Edgar hoover might have been a fascinating man; however you can't tell this judging by Clint Eastwood's biopic.
Leonardo DiCaprio plays Hoover as a young idealist man, all the way to the eccentric, paranoid creature he turned into towards the end of his life. The film's framing device is having Hoover dictate his biography to several typists (among them Westwick in full Chuck Bass mode), highlighting his feats and hinting at events in his private life that make us wonder if they are part of said framing device or slips in Eastwood's uneven narrative.
Shot in absolute darkness by Tom Stern, who foregoes the chiaro in chiaroscuro, the film feels like if it wants to hide things from us because it's not even sure how to tell them or if it's even allowed to tell them. We see Hoover as a young man taking charge of the newly created Bureau of Investigation, trying to solve crimes as famous as Charles Lindbergh's (Lucas) baby being kidnapped and taking credit for arresting famed gangster John Dillinger.
Throughout the film there's a sense of conflict between the screenplay and the filmed result and this makes sense because the screenplay was written by openly gay writer Dustin Lance Black who, with reason, tries to push the film's gay agenda by stressing out Hoover's infamous love of cross dressing and his strange relationship with Clyde Tolson (Hammer). There is of course nothing wrong with revealing aspects of a public figure that might've been unknown by most people, but to do so when the film being made is an homage to old studio filmmaking only works out in disastrous ways.
You get a sense, because of the film's structure, that every time Hoover's homosexuality is hinted at, Eastwood immediately "denies" it with something more "macho" and has him abuse someone or explode in a political tantrum.
The performances don't really help convey any coherent message either with DiCaprio mumbling his way throughout the running time, Hammer being eaten alive by his ridiculous old age makeup and Dench as Mama Hoover not even trying to come up with a decent American accent in her Shakespearean mama-wolf portrayal.
With its conflicting ideologies, excessive running time and preposterous selfimportance, the only person who comes up truly revealed in J. Edgar is its director, who despite a productive run as one of the most iconic American heroes is revealing signs of sad, albeit expected, senility.

Short Take: "Senna", "Jane Eyre" and "Warrior".

Ayrton Senna was widely regarded as one of the best race car pilots in the history of sport and Asif Kapadia's masterful documentary proves why. The thrilling film closely follows Senna's trajectory beginning as an amateur and then going all the way to him being World Champion on three consecutive years. The film chronicles his rivalry with teammate Alain Prost, with whom he engaged in psychological warfare on and off the racing track. What remains so stunning about this film, is how it trespasses into narrative fiction while retaining elements of non-fiction cinema. Most documentaries make you aware that you are watching reality being bent and that for all you want to do about it, the events being related are unchangeable. What goes on with Senna is quite the opposite, the film is done entirely with archival and news footage (there are no modern day interviews or intrusive narration) all of this helps create a seamless chain of events that trick us into thinking we might be watching fiction. We know for a fact that we're not, but the narrative is so precise and flawless that we ask ourselves, why were that many cameras near Ayrton all the time? The entire film has an eerie prescience, as if the people involved knew one day these fragments of their lives would be used to tell a life story. With that said, the film avoids sensationalism, instead turning Ayrton into a mythical figure with a tainted human spirit. His love of god and country are as great as his ego (sometimes he sounded deluded, as if he was the Joan of Arc of racing) and for all the inevitability of its tragic finale, you always hope things will turn out different for him in the end. They don't of course, but Senna proves that truth can sometimes be much more harrowing than fiction. 

Out of all the English classic novels, it always results mystifying to ask ourselves how did the Brontë's oeuvre end up falling into the romance genre when their twisted stories of suffering among the English moors perhaps fit better in the category of horror. The greatest adaptation of any of their works is probably I Walked With a Zombie because it goes to the heart of its literary adaptation, Jane Eyre, removes all the romantic bullshit and sees it for what it is: a tale of sadomasochism disguised as love. With that said, most of the world chooses to see Jane Eyre as a tale of doomed romance and love conquering it all, which would make for an interesting essay on how messed up our conceptions of love are...but that's a whole different story. In this adaptation of the classic novel, the usually insipid Mia Wasikowska gives life to Jane Eyre, the suffering governess who goes through a Dickensian childhood only to end in an even more tortuous relationship with her employer, the damaged Mr. Rochester (Michael Fassbender). Director Cary Fukunaga goes the traditional way and turns the film into a showcase of classic studio filmmaking with gorgeous sets, a sweeping musical score and Judi Dench. Perhaps it's best to approach the movie as if you were watching a classic Hollywood production, given that Fukunaga injects little into it and like in his previous movie, some scenes offer themselves to be taken as parody (Rochester telling Jane how he's far from handsome comes to mind). It's great that Fassbender and Wasikowska put so much into their roles, because they make the film's artifice achieve a delightful balance.

Warrior is a movie that lingers dangerously between parody and serious filmmaking and can best be comprised by calling it: a greatest hits kind of movie. Taking elements that have worked before for similarly themed movies (although fans of it can argue that all films are versions of other films) director Gavin O'Connor brings us a tearjerker that combines Rocky, The Fighter, Karate Kid and a few biblical parables to create a movie aimed to please everyone. Tom Hardy stars as Tommy, a former marine who returns to the States and asks his ex-alcoholic dad (Nick Nolte) to train him for a mixed martial arts championship named Sparta (for 300 lovers). Meanwhile, Tommy's estranged brother Brendan (Joel Edgerton) is going through an economic crisis that forces him to sign up for the same championship in order to save his house from being foreclosed. Tommy, obviously, hides a dark secret about his days in Iraq and Brendan, who works as a high school teacher, must hide his new moneymaking scheme from his students (somehow mixed martial arts are the equivalent of prostitution to the film's Capra-esque characters) and of course the final showdown will be between the siblings, but which one should win? The real problem with Warrior is that it's so many different movies, that it ends up being none. The acting is quite good, Edgerton and Hardy are terrific and surprisingly sincere, but the plot feels forced and drags on for too long. If you've seen any of the movies it borrows from, you really don't need to bother with it...
However, here's a theory: the movie grabs a soldier and a schoolteacher - two of the most "heroic" and valued professions in the USA - takes away their "integrity" and pitches them against each other in a brutal fight for money. What is the film saying about the worth of morality in a world where the economy plummets constantly? Now, that would've made a much more interesting movie...

Grades:
Senna ***½
Jane Eyre ***
Warrior **

Sweet HD Tooth.

Y'all remember Chocolat? That cute little movie people grew to hate because it got a Best Picture Oscar nomination? Which also kept me all confused throughout the entire awards season because Juliette Binoche and Julia Roberts were nominated for Best Actress and their smiles were so similar! Julia kept all demure in the tiny boxes, saving that toothy hole until she won the Oscar. Anyway, the movie came out on Blu-ray and I reviewed it for PopMatters, so go check that out.

Nine ***

Director: Rob Marshall
Cast: Daniel Day-Lewis, Marion Cotillard, Penélope Cruz
Nicole Kidman, Judi Dench, Kate Hudson, Fergie, Sophia Loren

"Nine" is the third incarnation of a project that was born almost half a century ago at the hands of the brilliant Federico Fellini.
His film "8 ½" chronicled the anguish of a film director upon facing creative block. The movie is considered a masterpiece of world cinema and was transformed into a Broadway musical by Maury Yeston and Arthur Kopit which concentrated on the effect of women in the lives of the director.
Rob Marshall's adaptation then takes the musical back to the silver screen which perhaps it should never have left to begin with.
"8 ½" was always a very personal piece, it's been largely debated whether the main character was or wasn't an alter ego of Fellini himself. Sure the similarities were vast but to imply so would also be to diminish the auteur's ability to separate himself from the characters he write.
If that was the question should we say then that Mozart shouldn't have made music about music or Shakespeare written about writers?
If Fellini put something of his' in the movie it was his distinctive cinematic touch, he creates a surrealist, documentary-like circus out of unraveling minds and Guido is Fellini, not because he's a movie director but because he's his creation.
But out of this mess he comes up with a movie about ideas, a work of art that defies all conventions because it's a perfect ode to imperfection.
Therefore "Nine" always had a rough time ahead in becoming a beast of its own, for how do you adapt something that was already so undecipherable?
"Nine" had to be more chaotic and yet organized, it had to become an oxymoron and be both messy and grounded.
But Rob Marshall, always a visual perfectionist, chose to make a beautiful, almost too polished film that never really gets to the core of the creative crisis Guido Contini (Day-Lewis) is going through.
Instead he comes up with a film that proves another point almost by accident; that some ideas should remain forever where they were born.
When the film begins we meet Guido, perhaps the most famous director in the world who is about to start shooting a film called "Italia" but has yet to write a word for its screenplay.
He starts being haunted by the women who have inspired him throughout his life: his mother (Loren) who now is dead, a prostitute he met in his childhood called Saraghina (Fergie), his leading lady Claudia Jenssen (Kidman), his confidante and costume designer Lilli (Dench), American "Vogue" reporter Stephanie (Hudson), his mistress Carla (Cruz) and his wife-and former leading lady-Luisa (Cotillard).
The movie is structured so that each of these ladies gets a musical number (two in Cotillard's case) that goes along with what Guido is going through at that moment.
Therefore when we see him remember his repressive Catholic childhood Saraghina bursts out of the sand to remind him he was meant to be a lover in "Be Italian", while his mom soothes him with the melancholic lullaby "Guarda La Luna".
Marshall stages the numbers using the same framing device he used in "Chicago" as they unfold in a studio which looks like Cinecittá but is actually inside Guido's mind.
The numbers mostly feel completely disconnected from each other as Dench's "Folies Bergere" seems more at place in a revue than a movie about movies, while Hudson's "Cinema Italiano" (a song so tacky and overdone that you might blush when you actually find yourself humming it) would fit more in an MTV crash course through the 60's.
To some this might seem a misfire but considering the movie is basically us being voyeurs to Guido, they completely make sense.
In this way Carla's "A Call from the Vatican" shows him at his most playful and Cruz is so smoldering that she might even make you break a sweat as she coos throughout an orgasm. The numbers aren't really about these women, when they sing they are not themselves as much as they are projections of Guido.
That he also happens to be a projection of them just makes for a fascinating concept considering that like the film he's making, and to a degree "Nine" itself, he's essentially a work in progress.
Day-Lewis who obviously doesn't have the Italian gene, is unable to evoke charm and sexiness but he's an expert at brooding and inner exploration.
He sings with indifference as if he knows that because he's singing to himself he can give out so-so performances and still be the star of the show.
"I would like to be here/but also there" he sings completely aware that "that's a contradiction in terms" and the same can be said for the film which has trouble adjusting itself from the switch of musical into traditional scenes.
If there is something "Nine" gets really well is the casting; Dench is a sassy scene stealer, Loren really just needs to appear to evoke class glamor (she curiously represents the idea of women Guido attempts to encompass with the film he wants to make).
Fergie is a revelation as the sexual, larger than life Saraghina and Nicole Kidman shines in a role that seems to have been made for her. "People just don't realize she's an actress as well as a star" says Guido and Kidman proves him right in the affecting "Unusual Way" where she deconstructs the image of a movie star with the simple removal of a wig.
The movie perhaps belongs to Cruz and Cotillard. Cruz would've made Fellini proud as she takes on her role in the manner of someone like Magali Noël in "Amarcord", hips and lips everywhere but she's also able to break our heart when we least expect it.
Her undeniable sexiness is nothing compared to the longing in her eyes when she looks at Guido, her performance makes us look at her love as something beyond morality.
Then there's Cotillard who makes Luisa the center of the movie. In "My Husband Makes Movies" she shows us her life without recurring to cheap martyrdom; it's as if her devotion is what keeps her heart pumping. When she sings "he needs me so/and he'll be the last to know it" it doesn't come out as delusional but as self compromise.
But bets are off when Luisa finally unravels in the spine tingling "Take It All", which is cleverly edited between takes of her asking Guido to give her back her life and the musical performance where she strips for a strange crowd.
Watching Cotillard in that scene travel fearlessly from inner to outer nakedness is watching everything we would've wanted "Nine" to be.
But asking for so much would be to become Luisa and demand love and understanding from something that probably doesn't even understand itself.

Just Because.

Be, More, Italian!

The idea behind the new poster for "Nine" is kinda cute. The whole poster within a poster thing has been done in the past to great effect (remember "Notting Hill"?)
But something about this poster is too damn selfconscious.
It is too damn crowded, there's too much going on and you don't really know where the hell you should be looking at first.
Wouldn't it have been superb if the poster featuring the women had been done in the style of the era: with illustrations a la Anita Ekberg in "La Dolce Vita"?
At least this one's better than the Korean version.

Bellissimo.

The "sleek" with Nicole!
The spread with Penélope!
The "Vogue" with Kate!
Someone give this to me now!

Mamma Mia...

It's been published everywhere, but it rocks! Can't wait for this!

Just Random...

I just woke up from a dream in which Alfonso Cuarón, Guillermo del Toro and Alejandro González Iñárritu presented an Honorary Academy Award to Judi Dench...

How to Achieve Multiple Orgasms in 2:30.

Quantum of Solace ***

Director: Marc Forster
Cast: Daniel Craig
Mathieu Amalric, Olga Kurylenko, Gemma Arterton
Jeffrey Wright, Giancarlo Giannini, Judi Dench

It is only logical, and fair, that as times change so do iconic film characters along with our perception of them. James Bond, once the symbol of nihilist Imperialism, decadent sexual freedom and the alpha male role model of choice by men and women has evolved, in just two films, into the ultimate kind of movie character: the human one.
Kicking off (literally) where Martin Campbell's "Casino Royale" left off, this film starts with a chase sequence along Lake Cuomo, Italy, as Bond (Craig) transports Mr. White (Jesper Christensen) to be interrogated about a recently discovered organization called Quantum.
After revealing that they have people "everywhere" White makes a surprising escape with the aid of an MI6 double agent.
Preoccupied with the intelligence leak, Bond is given precarious clearance to follow their only lead, which takes them to Haiti and a man named Dominic Greene (Almaric) who on the surface looks like an environment friendly philantropist, but might also have deep ties with Quantum and their involvement in a coup d'état set to occur in Bolivia.
While the plot is a continuation of "Casino Royale", especially in Bond's search for the truth behind Vesper Lynd's betrayal and the uncovering of the big bad guys, those expecting a thematic sequel will be highly disappointed.
While "Royale" was all about class and unconventional, almost diplomatic, ways of accomplishing the mission, "Quantum of Solace" isn't afraid to get down and dirty.
In fact it's what it does most of the time; it features action sequence after sequence where Bond moves with disdain for anything that gets in his way, including boats, planes and cars, along with several people who he kills before interrogating (in what becomes a sort of dark joke within the plot).
Fighting hard against what obviously becomes a revenge, Bond must battle with himself without jeopardizing what might be one of the most important missions of his career.
At times the film is a throwback to the first Bond movies in terms of visual style and design, especially with the trademark Bond girl that comes in the shape of Agent Fields (Arterton). Still no Q or Monneypenny though.
But in other elements the film is almost in the extreme opposite of the corniness found in the elaborate plans of the villains which were more about being a pain in the ass for Bond, than actual machiavelic devices of destruction.
In Greene and his truly chilling plan, we find ourselves before the first Bond villain who might exist in real life. Greene moves among political and economic circles where the policies being dealt among the "bad" and "good" guys are scarily reminiscent of dealings going on in actual governments.
CIA agent Felix Leiter (Wright) must face the fact that sometimes the job isn't exactly made of the idealistic dreams kids are brought upon and even M (Dench) finds herself deciding whether to compromise her duty as a British citizen or as a human being.
While everything in "Casino Royale" was more cerebral (which makes simply puzzling and outstanding how they managed to make poker seem so exciting) this film works at a more visceral level.
It's almost rebellious; even a staging of Puccini's "Tosca" shines for the unexpected, bizarreness of its postmodernist setting.
"Quantum of Solace" is at the core a clash of the old and the new, a juxtaposition of encountered feelings, even the theme song (which weirdly pairs Alicia Keys and Jack White) is a collision of elements that shouldn't work together, but somehow do.
"I find you horribly efficient" reveals Bolivian agent Camille Montes (Kurylenko who could kill anyone with her sumptuous tan) to Bond after finding that he, like the labyrintine plot and Forster's somewhat unsteady direction, always manage to get the work done.
Most of the film relies on the power of Daniel Craig who has completely made the part his own and has become a true force of nature. In the previous film he acted like a man who falls in love going against everything he believes in, here he plays James like a wounded animal.
He is as ruthless as he is charming, which might work against the idea of Bond as a perfect hero and bring him down to Earth as an imperfect human being with an inescapable ambiguity.
He doesn't bother with being glamorous and makes his way relying on a selfconfidence that makes impossible for anyone to say no to him. His behavior is so uninterested at times that he doesn't even lust after Camille, setting a sexual tension the film more than lives up to.
The only other person who competes with Craig here on terms of screen command is the always magnificent Dench whose character has become more of a central player and one might even say the source of some Freudian subplot regarding how to deal with authority when you care about them.
While the screenplay (by Paul Haggis, Neal Purvis & Robert Wade) works hard to turn Bond into a globalized version of what he used to be, Craig (who relies on everything he can as an actor, just watch his deliciously wicked smirk after he know he did something wrong) never lets the iconic character completely vanish.
Scarily appropriate for the time of its release, "Quantum of Solace" is sometimes uncomfortable to watch, its attitude becomes blasé and one might argue it follows its lead character's mood.
As the world faces economic recession and there is underlying fear everywhere, a scene where Bond checks himself into a luxury hotel despite a request to be subtle comes off as a disturbing moment of indifference, even if the plot then turns in his favor as he becomes a sort of Socialist hero.
The series now faces the dilemma of going back to the escapism it lived by, or moving forward with the gritty realism that has become staple for action films this century.
Whatever their choice is the truth remains that Craig has become someone you will follow, sometimes even despite what your best judgment tells you.

Random Prayer.

Please G-d, let this film be as good as these women deserve.

I Just Died a Little...

Academy Award winners Marion Cotillard and Sophia Loren joined by Fergie outside a London restaurant a few nights ago in order to celebrate the filming of "Nine".
They were also joined by Kate Hudson and Dame Judi Dench who was probably giving Fergie a run for her money in the hip department.
In what's definitely becoming my favorite shooting project, "Nine" is a musical adaptation of one of my favorite films of all time "8 1/2".
Missing in the party were Nicole Kidman and Penélope Cruz (hmmm...) who, along with the other ladies, will be wooing Daniel Day Lewis in the movie.
OK how on Earth can this get any better?