I Am Sam (2001) - Penn and Fanning elevate flawed disability drama

♥♥♥

 

Two major stars sit across from each other against a backdrop of familial affection on this poster for Jessie Nelson's I Am Sam

Sam is a father and intellectually disabled, and therefore the authorities want to remove his daughter from his care. But isn't his big, pumping love for her the most important thing for the girl's well-being?

 

I Am Sam is written by Kristine Johnson (Imaginary Crimes (1994)) and co-writer/co-producer/director Jessie Nelson (Corrina, Corrina (1994)).

Sean Penn's (The Gunman (2005)) heartwarming performance as Sam makes this otherwise wobbly drama worthwhile, and he is supported by Dakota Fanning (Hounddog (2007)), who is impossibly sweet as his daughter Lucy, as well as from Dianne Wiest (The Humbling (2014)) as the good lady across the street, as well as two supporting actors actually living with intellectual disability. 

The direction is regrettably heavy-handed: Telling looks, which the characters should have bared for a split second during a scene are instead held through entire scenes, so that the film seems condescending in its essentially taking us for saps. Almost all the scenes in I Am Sam are chasing the wildly emotional with an at times annoyingly handheld camera. The dichotomy of the court case climax and the film's message over-all are mostly of the overly simplified Hollywood kind, here specifically the Beatles inspired wisdom of 'love solves everything'. Michelle Pfeiffer (What Lies Beneath (2000)) plays an overstrung career woman, failing in making the character seem real. 

 

 

 

 

Watch a trailer for the movie here

 

Cost: 22 mil. $

Box office: 97.8 mil. $

= Big hit (returned 4.44 times its cost)

[I Am Sam premiered 3 December (Beverly Hills) and runs 132 minutes. Penn was paid 5 mil. $ for his performance in the film. Shooting took place from March - May 2001 in Los Angeles, California. The film opened #47 to a 41k $ first weekend in 2 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #7 and in 1,450 theaters (different weekends), grossing 40.3 mil. $ (41.2 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Japan with 25.7 mil. $ (26.3 %) and South Korea with 9.8 mil. $ (10 %). The film was nominated for 1 Oscar, for Best Actor (Penn), lost to Denzel Washington in Training Day. It was also nominated for a Grammy, among other honors. Roger Ebert gave it a 2/4 star review, translating to a notch under this one. Nelson returned with Love the Coopers (2015). Penn returned in It's All About Love (2003); Pfeiffer in White Oleander (2002). I Am Sam is rotten at 35 % with a 4.70/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of I Am Sam?

Kysset (2022) - August and Smed reteam for estimable period love drama

♥♥♥♥

 

A passionate kiss atop a scene of soldiers on horseback adorn this poster for Bille August's Kysset

Anton is the grown son of a working class home disgraced by his father's disappearance, who wants to redeem the family honor by excelling in the army. In the period leading up to the outbreak of WWI, he befriends a wealthy baron, who sees great promise of the second lieutenant in connection to his young invalid daughter. 

 

Kysset is written by Greg Latter (Night Train to Lisbon (2013)) with Danish master filmmaker, co-writer/director Bille August (In My Life/Honning Måne (1978)) contributing elements. It is an adaptation of Stefan Zweig's (Spring in the Prater/Praterfühlung (1900)) Beware of Pity/Ungeduld des Herzens (1939). The Danish title translates to 'the kiss'.

August reteams with his co-star of his recent long period drama A Fortunate Man/Lykkeper (2018), Esben Smed (Follow the Money/Bedrag (2016-19)), who is again an ideal actor for August's lingering camera and a character-based drama. Where the former film was Smed manifested as a man who lacked humility, which brought him at odds with his peers, Anton of Kysset lacks bravery or assuredness in his feelings. He is caught in debilitating doubt. A doubt that is fascinating and which reflects the film's central theme of whether or not love can or should be based on pity or bad conscience in some cases. Obligation and speculation also comes into play, but it is really the matter of pity and empathy that is the question here. SPOILER In the end Anton fails to take a clear stand and instead causes the baron's daughter Edith to commit suicide due to his cowardice, and he himself goes to war and gets shot dead in an act of foolish heroics (some may say heroic bravery) in the trench war. The film thus ends as a tragedy.

Smed's acting of Anton's doubts, as the whole course of the remainder of his life is suddenly on the table for a relationship that he is not fully convinced about, is supremely palpable. Lars Mikkelsen (The Venus Effect/Venuseffekten (2021)) and David Dencik (Chernobyl (2019, miniseries)) are good as the baron and Dr. Faber, the latter of whom treats Edith despite there being little chance of her ever recovering her ability to walk properly again. Clara Rosager (Before the Frost/Før Frosten (2018)) is fine as the emotional and volatile Edith, who is also difficult because she seems stunted in a teenager's dramatic frame of mind, around the age that her horse accident left her infirm. Sometimes the lines come out of her mouth in a way that feels as if she has practiced them a lot but that they don't really come from her, but it is a matter of actors of different classes (Rosager against Smed), and she does give the character the emotionally high-strung center that she needs.

The film is smaller in scope than A Fortunate Man but highly well-produced, no less powerful and highly enjoyable as a sensitive artist's grown up's drama with full moral and ethical dilemmas of universal grain. 

 

Related posts:

Bille August: 2018 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2018 in films - according to Film Excess 

A Fortunate Man/Lykke-Per (2018) - Smed is terrific in August's magnificent production, though haunted by miniseries structure 

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 33.3 mil. DKK; approximately 4.75 mil. $

Box office: Around 2.2 mil. $ and counting

= Too early to say

[Kysset premiered 15 October (Warsaw Film Festival, Poland) and runs 116 minutes. Shooting took place from August - October 2021 in Hungary and Denmark. The film has so far sold 171,480 tickets in Denmark, its only market in general release, where the film is playing in Biografklub Denmark, meaning that probably at least half of the patrons are only paying half prize for their ticket. This comes to a gross of around 15.4 mil. DKK or 2.2 mil. $ (the average ticket prize set at 120 DKK). The film is not likely to become profitable theatrically. August is in pre-production with 4 films, the first one titled The Emperor of Dreams - Gianni Versace. Smed is returning in 2 TV-series but does not have his theatrical return announced yet; Rosager also returns in 2 TV-series but has no theatrical return announced yet. 131 IMDb users have given Kysset a 6.8/10 average rating.]

 

What do you think of Kysset? 

Bangkok Dangerous (2008) - The Pang brothers drop Cage in a rickety remake

♥♥

+ Worst Poster of the Year

If you look at this poster for the Pang brothers' Bangkok Dangerous and wonder; one of Nicholas Cage's seems to be holding a gun that is missing, and the other is bizarrely creeping into his jacket, apparently going for his opposite armpit, - you are not alone. The poster ranks as one the all-time strangest and worst cases of poster graphics foul-up

Our mostly silent hitman hero Joe has some disciplinary rules set for his work, but now as he finds himself in Bangkok, Thailand, he breaks these rules as he carries out jobs.

Bangkok Dangerous is a remake of Bangkok Dangerous (1999), written by Jason Richman (Swing Vote (2008)) and directed by brothers Danny and Oxide Chun Pang (Out of Inferno/Tao Chu Sheng Tian (2013), both), who are remaking their own first film.
The Pang brothers have an unmistakable knack for staging exciting action scenes, - in particular the boat scenes are good here, - but the film's plot does not match this quality. Nicolas Cage's (National Treasure: Book of Secrets (2007)) romantic scenes with Joe's deaf-mute love interest Fon (played by Charlie Yeung (Sleepwalker/Meng You (2011)) are actually touching and fine, - but they seem like they arrive from out of another film.
Bangkok Dangerous has real Thai flavors, - but it is also undeniably a plate of simplistic action romance nonsense. SPOILER It ends unusually, as Cage blows his own brains out!

Related posts:
 
The Pang brothers: 2008 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]  

2008 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]  

2008 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2008 in films - according to Film Excess
The Eye 2/見鬼2/Gin3 Gwai2 2 (2004) or, Women: Screaming and Crying

Watch some interesting behind-the-scenes footage from the film's Bangkok shoot here

Cost: 45 mil. $
Box office: 42.4 mil. $
= Huge flop
[Bangkok Dangerous premiered 22 August (Spain) and runs 100 minutes. Cage's production company Saturn Films had purchased the remake rights to the original film. The original's mute hero was changed for "a marketing point of view", Oxide Pang has explained, and the deaf-mute love interest was created instead. Shooting took place in Thailand, including in Bangkok, and in Prague, the Czech Republic from August 2006 - ?, making the film's post production period suspiciously long. The film opened #1 to a 7.7 mil. $ first weekend in North America, the lowest #1 first weekend gross there since David Spade-comedy Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star (2003). It fell out of the top 5 in its second week and grossed a weak 15.2 mil. $ (35.8 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Russia and Spain, each with 3.6 mil. $ (8.5 %). The home video release earned in excess of 15 mil. $ in North America, which, if added into the theatrical gross, would only change the film's status to that of 'big flop'. The Pang brothers returned solo in their native Hong Kong; Danny Pang with Seven 2 One (2009), Oxide Chun Pang with Basic Love (2009). Cage returned in Knowing (2009). Bangkok Dangerous is rotten at 8 % with a 3.4/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Bangkok Dangerous?

Rust and Bone/De Rouille et d'Os (2012) - Cotillard gives another awe-inspiring performance

♥♥♥♥

 

A sensual, strong poster for Jacques Audiard's Rust and Bone

 

A crude single father arrives to a coastal city in France with his son and gets a job as a bouncer in a nightclub, where he meets a beautiful woman in distress, who later loses both of her legs in an Orca accident.

Co-writer-director Jacques Audiard (A Prophet/Un Prophète (2009)) continues his style of telling different stories about underclass people we otherwise rarely meet on the big screen, and he once again strikes with a very corporeal tale with a couple of scenes of ugly violence. SPOILER - One of them involves the father and his son, and I found it very hard not to lose all sympathy for the gorilla-like man (played intensely by Matthias Schoenaerts (The Danish Girl (2015))) here. Moreover, Schoenaerts yells the little, crying boy in the head, and I couldn't help but wonder how (or if) they shot that in an ethically defensible way. (I have since read that Audiard deemed this the film's hardest scene to shoot and that the boy knew he would be yelled at but still started crying for real, which is what is now in the film.)

Schoenaerts has a primitive intensity, but it is Marion Cotillard (La Vie en Rose/La Môme (2007)) who is the center of the film, and she is absolutely stunning, completely melted together with her character and deeply moving in certain scenes, SPOILER especially those in which she overcomes her handicap.

Audiard co-wrote Rust and Bone with Thomas Bidegain (Dheepan (2015)), based on a same-titled 2005 short story by Craig Davidson (The Fighter (2008)). It is a raw film presented without much sugar; it goes for the jugular and should especially be seen for Cotillard's hypnotizing performance.

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 15.4 €, equal to approximately 20 mil. $

Box office: 25.7 mil. $

= Big flop

[Rust and Bone premiered May 17 (Cannes) and runs 123 minutes. Cotillard is an animal activist and fiercely against marine parks. Still she spend a week preparing for her role in a marine park, whereas Schoenaerts practised MMA and gained weight. The film came together as a co-production of no less than 17 companies and institutions. Filming took place in 8 weeks in France and Belgium from October - November 2011. The film opened #56 in 2 theaters to a 27k $ first weekend in North America, where it peaked in 168 theaters and grossed 2 mil. $ (7.8 % of the total gross), the film's second biggest market. Its biggest market by far was its native France with 14.5 mil. $ (56.4 %). The 3rd biggest was Germany with 1.5 mil. $ (5.8 %). The film lost the Palm d'Or to Michael Haneke's Amour. It was nominated for 2 Golden Globes, 9 Césars (France's Oscar, winning 4) and numerous other awards. Roger Ebert added the film to his Great Films list. Rust and Bone is certified fresh at 82 % with a 7.5 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Rust and Bone?

The Intouchables/Intouchables/Untouchable (2011) - Uplifting true-story drama with universal appeal

♥♥♥♥♥

3 Time Film Excess Nominee:


Best Film (lost to The Descendants)
Best Cinematography: Mathieu Vadepied (lost to Phedon Papamichael for The Descendants)
Best Editing: Dorian Rigal-Ansous (lost to The Artist)

+ Best French Movie of the Year

Watch Eric Toledano and Olivier Nakache's The Intouchables to get to know these two happy gentlemen

QUICK REVIEW:

A rich man in a wheelchair has grown tired of his usual helpers and so hires an uncouth man from Senegal to be his new caretaker. Though from completely different walks of life, the two develop a strong friendship.

Intouchables has got a great opening 'hook' scene, a handsomely shot car scene, and it continues perfectly as a warm culture clash-themed dramedy about grasping the chances that life affords and embracing life and friendships in general. It is written and directed by Frenchmen Eric Toledano and Olivier Nakache (Samba (2014), both), based on a true story. (Critics of the film are often obsessed with the race aspect of the film, which they attack and dislike, and they find that it is of great importance that the real story concerned a French-Algerian caregiver, not a black African as in the film. - But, I say, what does this change matter, really...?)
Intouchables is really funny, and at the same time it manages to tell a strong story with credible, full characters. François Cluzet (Little White Lies/Les Petits Mouchoirs (2010)) and especially a very vivacious Omar Sy (Jurassic World (2015)) in the leads and Anne Le Ny (Attila Marcel (2013)) and Audrey Fleurot (Midnight in Paris (2011)) as the women who surround them have great chemistry and act with aplomb.
The movie has visual panache, cinematography by Mathieu Vadepied (Read My Lips/Sur Mes Lèvres (2001)), nice musical choices and seamless editing by Dorian Rigal-Ansous (Samba).
The Intouchables is a high-concept, feel-good crowd-pleaser, a touching human meeting that is among the year's best films.

Related posts:

Top 10: Best French movies

2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I] 
Top 10: The best true story movies reviewed by Film Excess to date  

Watch the trailer for the film with English subtitles here

Cost: 10.8 mil. $
Box office: 426.5 mil. $
= Mega-hit
[Untouchables was the most viewed French film in France after 4 weeks. After 16 weeks, a whopping 19 mil. people had seen it in France, where it was #1 for 10 consecutive weeks, setting a new record. It is the highest-grossing movie in a language other than English of all time, beating Spirited Away (2001, 274.9 mil. $), the highest grossing French film of all time and the highest grossing foreign film in North America of 2012. It was #1 for several weeks in a row of European countries and has been seen globally by more than 50 mil. cinema-goers. It grossed 10.1 mil. $ (2.4 % of the total gross) in North America. The 3 biggest markets were France (166.1 mil. $/38.9 %), Germany (79 mil. $/18.5 %) and Spain (21 mil. $/4.9 %). The film was shortlisted for the Best Foreign Film Oscar category. The Intouchables is certified fresh at 75 % with a 6.7 critical average on Rotten Tomatoes. General audiences are more enthused, lauding the film as the #38 best ever on IMDb's Top 250. A US remake with Colin Firth and Kevin Hart and Tom Shadyac serving as director is presently in the mold.]

What do you think of The Intouchables?

The Sessions (2012) - Lewin's personally important true-story dramedy is deeply satisfying - and educational

♥♥♥♥♥♥

A blue-templated, uplifting, fresh and curiosity-striking poster for Ben Lewin's The Sessions

The Sessions is the true story of Mark O'Brien, a poet who is bound to his iron lung due to his debilitating polio condition, who in 1980's California as a middle-aged gentleman gets his sexual debut thanks to a life-savvy sex therapist's generous sessions.

 
John Hawkes (Martha Marcy May Marlene (2011)) and Helen Hunt (As Good As It Gets (1997)) are both magnificent, and William H. Macy (Fargo (1996)) has a lovely and very funny part as O'Brien's open-minded, candid priest here in a real gem of a film, in which all the secondary parts are also filled out by wonderful actors across the board. With underplayed, fine photography and music, The Sessions works its magic by totally un-senzationalizing sex with a paralyzed man, and by broadening the human horizon in doing so. It is written and directed by Ben Lewin (Georgia (1988)), who has survived polio himself and who handles the true story here with insightful deftness and a keen sense of common humanity, empathy and not least a warm and liberating sense of humor that makes the rare situation we get confronted with here so very recognizable and palpable. The result is poignant and deeply moving
Full of heart, meaning, fun and tears, The Sessions is a uniquely wonderful film, pushing boundaries and making perfectly natural sense with its inherent agenda of the right for a sexual life for people with disabilities.

Related posts:

2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED V]
2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]
2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
Top 10: The best true story movies reviewed by Film Excess to date 

Watch the amazing trailer here and then GO GET THIS MOVIE!!!

Budget: 1 mil. $
Box office: 9.1 mil. $
= Big hit

What do you think of The Sessions?