Somewhere (2010) - S. Coppola's phenomenal existential character study

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3 Film Excess wins:

Best Actor: Stephen Dorff
Best Director: Sofia Coppola
Best Editing    

7 Film Excess nominations:

Best Film (lost to The King's Speech)
Best Actor: Stephen Dorff (won)
Best Supporting Actress: Elle Fanning (lost to Dianne Wiest for Rabbit Hole)
Best Director: Sofia Coppola (won)
Best Cinematography: Harris Savides (lost to Wally Phister for Inception)
Best Editing (won)
Best Music: Phoenix (lost to Treme S1)

 

+ 3rd Best Movie of the Year

+ Best American Movie of the Year 

+ Best Character Study of the Year

 

With Hollywood's Chateau Marmont hotel looming in the back, the poster for Sofia Coppola's Somewhere

 

We follow action star Johnny Marco, who lives a distanced, floating life in a fancy Los Angeles hotel. For a while he lives with his teenage daughter Cleo.

 

Stephen Dorff (The Iceman (2012)) and Elle Fanning (The Neon Demon (2016)) are indescribably good in New Yorker master writer-director Sofia Coppola's (The Virgin Suicides (1999)) masterpiece of realizing you have gotten stuck in life and setting a new course. Dorff inhabits his character physically as well as psychologically. Somewhere also has a beautiful score by French indie-pop band Phoenix, (whose front singer Thomas Mars is Coppola's husband), and bold, simple and very elegant photography by the great Harris Savides (Milk (2008)).

This is an awesomely fine film, in which the lack of formal events and action lead our focus to its existential core meditations: Can one change? And, even more to the point; can one really act in one's own life? SPOILER The sophisticated ending seems to respond a tentative yes. (And if you don't get it, watch the film again, understand its journey and look at its title.)  Somewhere is beautiful.

 

Related posts:

 

Sofia Coppola: Top 10: Best Hollywood-set movies   

2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]

2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]

2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

The Bling Ring (2013) - Coppola misfire, boooooooring

Coppola is interviewed about the film here

Cost: 7 mil. $

Box office: 13.9 mil. $

= Flop

[Somewhere premiered September 11 (Venice International Film Festival) and runs 98 minutes. Coppola drew inspiration from countless movies, acquaintances and her own upbringing as cinema royalty (as the daughter of Francis Ford Coppola.) Filming took place in Italy and LA, including the real Chateau Marmont, and Las Vegas from June - July 2009. The film opened #26 with a 119k $ first weekend in 7 theaters in North America, where it peaked in 83 theaters and grossed 1.7 mil. $ (12.2 % of the total gross). Before North America, the film's biggest 2 market were France with 3.3 mil. $ (23.7 %) and Italy with 2.7 mil. $ (19.4 %). The film won the Golden Lion in Venice. It received mixed reviews, but Roger Ebert, agreeing with me, gave it 4/4 stars. Somewhere is certified fresh at 71 % with a 6.6 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Somewhere?

The Iceman (2012) or, Richard Kuklinsky: Coldhearted Mass Murderer

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Michael Shannon doesn't look like the kind of guy you'd normally want to share a dinner with on the poster for Ariel Vromen's The Iceman

QUICK REVIEW:

Polish-American Kuklinsky is a tightly wrought, uncharismatic man, who becomes a hitman for the mob over several years without his wife and two daughters suspecting anything.

Michael Shannon (They Came Together (2014)) gives an unadorned, strong performance as the title psychopath, who is unfortunately a killer without any redeeming qualities. Also for this reason his wife, portrayed by Winona Ryder (Girl, Interrupted (1999)), comes off as dumb and uninteresting. - What does she see in him?
Iceman is very unglamorous, almost uglified in its earthy, cold hues, and it is not a very compelling film. People die right and left, - only little else seems to be happening, really, - without it getting us to care much about the misdeeds regardless. SPOILER - Besides feeling that Kuklinsky deserves the punishment he finally receives.
Iceman features a star parade which unfortunately doesn't save it, and among them Stephen Dorff (Somewhere (2010)) is hard to swallow as Shannon's brother.
The Iceman is written by Morgan Land (Rx (2005)) and Israeli co-writer-director Ariel Vromen (Danika (2006)), based on Anthony Bruno's book The Iceman: The True Story of a Cold-Blooded Killer and Jim Thebaut's documentary The Iceman Tapes: Conversations with a Killer.
The Iceman story's biggest interest lies in the double life and compartmentalization of his two lives that Kuklinsky managed to hold up for years.

Watch the trailer for the movie here

Cost: Estimated 10 mil. $
Box office: 4.4 mil. $
= Mega-flop
[The Iceman was shot in New York City, LA and Shreveport, Louisiana December 2011 - January 2012. It premiered at Telluride, was shown at Toronto and Venice International Film Festival, and never crossed 300 screens in North America, where it received mixed reviews and only grossed 1.9 mil. $ (43.2 % of the total gross). Its 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 0.8 mil. $ (18.2 %) and Hong Kong with 0.6 mil. $ (13.6 %). The Iceman is fresh at 66 % with a 6.2 critical average on Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Iceman?