Paranoid Park (2007) - Van Sant's tender skater kid drama

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Disturbing elements cause tension around the main image of the androgynous main character on this poster for Gus Van Sant's Paranoid Park

Alex is a young skater with a disintegrating family in Portland, Oregon. One night he becomes guilty of accidental manslaughter. What does he do?

 

Paranoid Park is written, directed and edited by Kentuckian master filmmaker Gus Van Sant (Mala Noche (1986)), whose 12th feature it is. It is based on the same-titled 2006 novel by Blake Shelton (Gender Blender (2006)).

Van Sant has such a keen sense of the lives of the young, and he makes the experiences portrayed here important simply by slowing things down and adding music.

Gabe Nevins (The Curio (2015)) is an underplaying find in the lead role. One scene with Alex and his father is ruined, when the latter comes into focus and amateur actor Jay Williamson's poor performance stands out. 

Paranoid Park is beautifully photographed (by Christopher Doyle (The White Girl (2017)) and Rain Li (Uncertainty (2008))), and particularly the death scene is strong. SPOILER The ending is unsatisfying: The film's point evaporates, as it seems that Alex manages with his secret? Somehow unsatisfying. 

 

Related posts:

Gus Van Sant: Promised Land (2012) or, Let's Get Your Small Town A-fracka-lackin'!

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Good Will Hunting (1997) or, The Genius Idiot 

 

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 3 mil. $

Box office: 4.5 mil. $

= Big flop (returned 1.5 times its cost)

[Paranoid Park premiered in March (Hong Kong International Film Festival) and runs 84 minutes. Van Sant wrote the first draft in 2 days. The final draft was just 33 pages long. He held an open audition advertised through a Myspace page, and nearly 3,000 youths auditioned. Shooting took place around October 2006 in Oregon, including in Portland. The film opened #62 to a 29k $ first weekend in 2 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #42 and in 37 theaters (different weekends), grossing 486k $ (10.8 % of the total gross). North America was its 2nd biggest market. France was the biggest with 1.8 mil. $ (40 %), and Italy was the 3rd biggest with 941k $ (20.9 %). The film won 1/3 Independent Spirit award nominations and an award at the Cannes Film Festival, where it was in the main competition, lost to 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, among other honors. Van Sant returned with To Each His Own Cinema (2007, segment) and 8 (2008, segment) before his own theatrical return with Milk (2008). Nevins returned in Wendy and Lucy (2008). Paranoid Park is certified fresh at 77 % with a 7.00/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of Paranoid Park? 

Manchester by the Sea (2016) - Heavy stuff in Lonergan's Big Drama

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+ Best Massachusetts Movie of the Year 

 

Two star actors in an emotional moment by a waterfront surrounded by seagulls make up this poster for Kenneth Lonergan's Manchester by the Sea

A janitor with a terrible tragedy behind him is tasked with taking care of his late brother's teenage son.

 

Manchester by the Sea is written and directed by Kenneth Lonergan (You Can Count on Me (2000)).

It is a potent, heavy drama about unbearable loss, guilt and the life around a situation like this, (which always moves on perfectly disregarding those personal facts.)

If audiences are out of sync with the story, the film's funereal score will let us know, where we are. And the Massachusetts locale adds an evocative setting to the almost epic drama, which centers around a protagonist, who seems to go in a circle around his past as well as major emotional outbreaks. - SPOILER Instead he explodes in unmotivated violence in bars from time to time, (as a true Irish Catholic?) Casey Affleck (Drowning Mona (2000)) inhabits the character, and yet there is still something about the actor's cool expression that rubs me the wrong way. Young Lucas Hedges (Honey Boy (2019)) as Patrick, the teenage son, is really good, and Michelle Williams (Deception (2008)) is masterly in a supporting part. Gretchen Mol (Celebrity (1998)) is also fine as the overly nervous, alienated mother to the boy.

Manchester by the Sea is a worthwhile, heavily loaded drama with an open ending, a dose of implicit humor and the trace of hope.

 

Related post:

 

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Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 9 mil. $

Box office: 78.9 mil. $

= Mega-hit (returned 8.76 times its cost)

[Manchester by the Sea premiered 23 January (Sundance Film Festival) and runs 137 minutes. Lonergan has said of his motivation for writing and making the film;
"Some people can't get over something major that's happened to them at all; why can’t they have a movie too?" Matt Damon was initially supposed to star. Shooting took place in Massachusetts from February - May 2015. Amazon bought the US distribution right to the film for 10 mil. $ at Sundance. The film opened #21 to a 256k $ first weekend in 4 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #6 and in 1,213 theaters (different weeks), grossing 47.6 mil. $ (60.3 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 4.5 mil. $ (5.7 %) and France with 3.2 mil. $ (4.1 %). The film was nominated for 6 Oscars, winning for Best Original Screenplay and Actor (Affleck). It lost Best Picture to Moonlight, Supporting Actor (Hedges) to Mahershala Ali in Moonlight, Supporting Actress (Williams) to Viola Davis in Fences and Director to Damien Chazelle for La La Land. It also won 1/5 Golden Globe nominations, 2/6 BAFTAs nominations, an AFI award, was nominated for a César award and a David di Donatello award, won 1/5 Independent Spirit award nominations, 4 National Board of Review awards, and countless other honors. Lonergan has not announced another feature since. Affleck returned in The Finest Hours (2016); Williams in Certain Women (2016); and Hedges in Pigeonhearts (2017, short) and theatrically in Lady Bird (2017). Manchester by the Sea is certified fresh at 96 % with an 8.82/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Manchester by the Sea?

Life During Wartime (2009) - Too little is really going on in Solondz's guilt-themed Happiness sequel

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An adolescent boy with a white tulip against a cloudy sky makes up this strikingly drawn poster for Todd Solondz's Life During Wartime

A history of 3 sisters: One is a successful, conceited writer; the other a confused vegetarian, whose partners off themselves; and the last is a doped mother of three, whose ex-husband is a convicted pedophile.

Life During Wartime is the 6th feature from great New Jerseyite writer/director Todd Solondz (Fear, Anxiety and Depression (1989)). It is another film from him about the forbidden lust, the consequences of it and of guilt.
Guilt, guilt, guilt.
Despite good actors and few, piercing scenes, often of situations that in some way seem 'wrong', Life During Wartime is about fleetingly little, and mostly it's about excessively neurotic Jews with money. Mostly despicable people, objectively seen, (watch the film for yourself, if you don't believe me.) This is one in Solondz's output that you can calmly skip over: Instead watch his much better Welcome to the Dollhouse (1995), Happiness (1998), Storytelling (2001) and Wiener-Dog (2016).

Related post:

Todd Solondz: Wiener-Dog (2016) - Solondz's incisive and funny dog saga dramedy

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 4.5 mil. $
Box office: 791k $
= Box office disaster (returned 0.17 times the cost)
[Life During Wartime premiered 3 September (Venice Film Festival, Italy) and runs 97 minutes. It is a loose sequel to Solondz's Happiness (1998) with new actors playing the recurring characters. Shooting took place in Puerto Rico and elsewhere from October 2008 - ?. The film opened #43 to a 30k $ first weekend in 1 theater in North America, where it spread to 20 cinemas but never attained a higher placement, grossing 281k $ (35.5 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Italy with 194k $ (24.5 %) and France with 159k $ (20.1 %). Roger Ebert gave the film a 2.5/4 star review, equal to the rating in this review. The film was nominated for 2 Independent Spirit awards and won 1/3 nominations at the Venice Film Festival (for its screenplay). Solondz returned with Dark Horse (2011). Shirley Henderson (Tale of Tales/Il Racconto dei Racconti (2015)) returned in Meek's Cutoff (2010); Allison Janney (I, Tonya (2017)) in 6 non-theatrical performances before The Help (2011); and Ally Sheedy (Just a Dream (2002)) in Citizen Jane (2009, TV movie) and theatrically in Welcome to the Rileys (2010). Life During Wartime is fresh at 68 % with a 6.3/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Life During Wartime?

The Past/Le Passé (2013) - Farhadi's masterly drama

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+ Most Under-Appreciated Movie of the Year

 

A serious-toned, information-skimpy poster for Asghar Farhadi's The Past

 

An Iranian man returns to his wife in Paris to finalize their divorce. But their children, her new boyfriend, - and the consequences of all of their decisions that have piled up, - make the finalization harder than initially believed.

Even better then Iranian master writer-director Asghar Farhadi's (The Salesman (2016)) preceding, great A Separation (2011), The Past, his 6th feature, is a potent jawbreaker of a drama. It is thematically rich, centering on issues of guilt, suicide, love, family and responsibility, and dramatically intense. It features first-rate performances from Bérénice Bejo (The Artist (2011)) and Ali Mosaffa (Somewhere Else/Jayi Digar (2003)) and Tahar Rahim (Samba (2014)) as the two men in her life, as well as from Elyes Aguis (Looking for Her/Je Vous Souhaite d'être Follement Aimée (2015)), who plays their boy Fouad incredibly naturally and heartbreakingly.

The Past is full of nerve, SPOILER and especially in its third act, I came to reach the feeling that none of the three adults here, - plagued by immaturity, egotism and flight from their responsibilities as they are, - are really very sympathetic, - but the children involved still command our engagement with the story in spite of this. The adult characters also seem to balance on the edge of seeing themselves a bit from the outside, which we so desperately want them to, so they can grasp what it is they are doing.

The Past is in every way a masterful film; serious and realistic, it is a formidable work.

 

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Asghar Farhadi: Top 10: Best French movies

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A Separation (2011)/جدایی نادر از سیمین - Farhadi puts Iran on the cinematic world map with a supreme drama

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 8-11 mil. $

Box office: 10.6 mil. $

= Huge flop

[The Past premiered May 17 (Cannes) and runs 130 minutes. It was shot in Paris from October 2012 - January 2013. It is a co-production between no less than 17 companies and institutions. Farhadi wrote the script in Persian and spent two years in France, getting to know the rhythm of the language before filming. However, he still did not speak French and directed the film through a translator. Prior to the lengthy shoot, Farhadi insisted on 2 months of rehearsals. Bejo was cast as a substitute for Marion Cotillard, who dropped out due to commitments on Rust and Bone. The film opened #39 in 3 theaters to a 29k $ opening weekend in North America, where it peaked in 77 theaters and grossed 1.3 mil. $ (12.3 % of the total gross). The film's biggest market was its native France with 7.6 mil. $ (71.7 %), and its 3rd biggest was Italy with 0.6 mil. $ (5.7 %). To many's surprise, The Past was not Oscar-nominated. In Cannes, it won the ecumenical jury prize and the Best Actress prize. It was also nominated for the Best Foreign Film Golden Globe and for 5 César awards (France's Oscar), winning none. The Past is certified fresh at 93 % with an 8.2 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Past?