Hi. Remember me? I’m that guy… yeah. Um. Hi. This is awkward. Sorry I didn’t say much in last week’s column. I deign to see that I’m no longer a film snob. I realized that snobs think too much with their brains and too little with their hearts. Despite all the nice privileges of film snobs, it feels a little better to actually see film as something to enjoy and engage with, rather than something to dissect to the point that it becomes unrecognizable.
I’ve recently been finding enjoyment in the little things. And I’m tired of negativity. I’m tired of people bashing movies they don’t like. Don’t get me wrong – I like it when people are dryly disparaging about a film, but it’s so much easier to be mean than to be constructive about something. For me, it’s not so much about trying to place yourself above a film but finding the details that you do appreciate. So I might not like a movie, but I can admit it had a very funny line. Or I can say that even though I didn’t like the script of a movie, it was solidly edited or shot. I want to keep things celebratory.
What some people tend to ignore when bashing films is that a lot of work goes into making them, even bad ones. Have you ever read every credit in roll-up at the end of a picture? There are a lot of names on there. Each of those people put in long hours, maybe didn’t sleep much, maybe didn’t get to spend time with their families. But regardless, they were creating something. Even if the end product is less than exciting (like a Cuba Gooding comedy) we should remember the individuals who go into making a film. And then once you’ve recognized that, go ahead and rip the film to shreds.
This week, I especially want to draw your attention to the movie that we’re showing next Wednesday, Nov. 19. It’s called “Morvern Callar.” You might say, “Sounds weird. Haven’t heard of it. Don’t need to see it.” What?! I hate it when people do that! Expand your horizons! You’ll thank yourself later, I promise you. We need to expand our horizons. So don’t play it safe.
Seeing “Morvern Callar” is not playing it safe. It is a very different type of film. It is so visually expressive that you may find yourself cooing at the screen. Starring as “Morvern” (yes, it’s a name; Scottish.) is the ever so brilliant Samantha Morton, who was excellent in “Jesus’ Son” and was one of those few redeeming factors about “Minority Report.” It’s based on Alan Warner’s cult novel about Morvern, who works in a supermarket, and whose boyfriend commits suicide. On his computer, he’s left the manuscript for a book he’s written. She changes the name so that it says that she wrote the book. Then she picks up and leaves.
Not really a road movie, not fitting into any genre, really, “Morvern Callar” is the second feature from director Lynne Ramsay, whose first film, “Ratcatcher” is so damn good. I highly recommend it if you haven’t seen it. Her films’ visual style have an amazing dreamlike quality to them. The images seem to float off of the screen at you. Truly remarkable filmmaking. And “Morvern” has an amazing soundtrack of music by Can, Aphex Twin, Boards of Canada, Stereolab, Broadcast, The Velvet Underground, Lee Scratch Perry and Lee Hazelwood with Nancy Sinatra. And they’re all played really loudly!
This movie is supremely cool and it’d be a shame if you missed it. It deserves to be seen. So make the effort to see something new. Trust me. It’s great.
Next Wednesday, Nov. 20, 8 p.m., CFA Cinema, $3.
This weekend in the cinema:
Miyazaki’s “Spirited Away” won the Academy Award for Best Animated Film last year, beating out all that kid’s crap, and proving that Academy members actually watch the movies for which they vote.
This is a brilliant anime from the director of “My Neighbor Totoro,” and it is extremely bizarre. I saw it in New York on a Saturday morning, in a theater filled with little kids and their young mothers. I know that if I had seen this movie when I was a kid, instead of, say, “The Little Mermaid,” I would have turned out very different. I’d probably be a drug addict. Seeing that film as a little kid would certainly have been a formative experience in my personal development. Anyway, it’s a trippy movie. Miyazaki’s one of the best and strangest directors of animated films working today. If you don’t see this, you’re missing out on what everyone else already thinks is great.
Friday and Saturday, 7:30 p.m. and 10 p.m., $3 in the CFA Cinema.
And for free in the Science Center:
Friday is the second film from Todd Solondz, “Happiness.” His other films, “Welcome to the Dollhouse” and “Storytelling,” deal with suburban weirdness in a darkly comic and very original manner. Imagine “American Beauty” being more about trying to get semen stains out of upholstery than trying to have sex with your daughter’s friend, and you’ve got a sense of “Happiness.” It’s not a fun movie. It’s for the pervs. It’s pretty gross actually. The protagonist is a pedophile. I think it’s a really funny movie. But the kind of funny where the funny things make you embarrassed and want to cry instead of laugh. Enjoy!
Saturday is “The Devil Is A Woman,” Josef von Sternberg’s romance starring the always succulent Marlene Dietrich. If you like “The Blue Angel,” then you should see this one, a later film, made in the states. Cesar Romero, who played the Joker on the original “Batman” series from the 60s is in it as well. But, as usual, this is nothing if not a Dietrich vehicle. She is gorgeously costumed, lit and photographed. This is the last time she and von Sternberg collaborated, so we can see it as a kind of accumulation of their efforts. And you know that Noah Isenberg, Professor of Weimar Cinema and Its Relationship to the World of Hip-Hop, would recommend it. He’d, in fact, point out the obscure von Sternberg references in Biggie’s “Life After Death” video.
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