A Year of Movies

Up In The Air
Started & Finished: 10/14/09

When, by the end of a film, there’s nothing left to really speculate on, what are you supposed to think about?  For some reason, I’m left feeling like Up In The Air went in one ear and out the other.

It’s by no means a bad movie— I was attentive throughout, even during some textbook-cheesy moments.  The direction was fine, the script was quick and clever, and the acting was good, but it’s not very challenging.  Which is fine—I guess I was expecting something a bit deeper.  Rather, I wasn’t expecting such a morally straightforward story.  It’s really one big cautionary fable about the perils of being a manchild.

I did really enjoy the conclusion of the film, and how that was handled— but only then did writer/director Jason Reitman really bring the drama.  It’s also a good example of efficient storytelling, and the sleight of hand required to bring scenes to life (specifically, the act of showing one thing while characters are saying another, and letting the audience read the true meaning of the scene).  I’m not sure when Up In The Air will be in wide release, but it feels like it’d be a very enjoyable holiday-break type movie.  Easy, funny, relatable, and not too depressing.

Youth In Revolt
Started & Finished: 10/13/09

Bringing a book to the screen is always a daunting task— do you play to the studios and streamline the concepts, or do you kowtow to the fanboys and keep every last detail?  Adaptations seem to fail because they try to appease both sides, and do well at neither.  But Youth In Revolt manages to find that sweet middle ground that conveys the story at the heart of the novel, while taking liberties to ensure the tightest, funniest movie possible.

The film soars as an adaptation, but also as a film unto itself.  I was initially skeptical of some casting choices (I feel like I’ve been on Michael Cera overload this year), and wary of the process by which screenwriter Gustin Nash condensed a 500 page book into 89 minutes.  Having finished the book several weeks ago, I recognized 95% of the plot, and 99% of the jokes.  Yet it was told in a fresh and distinct way, focusing on the key plot elements that pushed the film along at quite a clip.

I’m happy to report that Michael Cera does an excellent job of playing roles outside of the traditional shy-guy archetype.  While it’s still a variation of the awkward teen, Cera’s Nick Twisp is more like Arrested Development’s George Michael a few years down the road, with enough sexual frustration to mow down anyone and anything in the way.  François is an entirely different beast that Cera pulls off with excellent poise and timing.

While it’s disappointing to see some of my favorite book moments and characters removed from the film (Fuzzy Defalco, jocks hitting on Carlotta, and any mention of T.E.’s), it’s clear that an overabundance of information would have ruined the story.  Instead, Nash and director Miguel Arteta make the best choices possible, excising the most extraneous and amping up the plot points that tell Nick’s dire quest to lose his virginity.  The novel contains so many more subplots and loads of cringe-inducing awkwardness, but the genius of this adaptation is that it gives the best of the bare bones—barely any narrative manipulation was necessary.  So if you see the film, but still want to read the book, don’t worry: it will still be like meeting Nick Twisp for the first time.  That is, assuming you really want to revisit that first scene.

The Road
Started & Finished: 10/8/09

I first read The Road in the backseat of a car at 6am, driving north on an empty highway, on a weekend during summer fire season.  The sky was one shade of gray, and the rising sun was just a white spot behind endless layers of ash.  It was perfect.

I first saw The Road in the middle of a crowded theater with a tiny screen and plugged ears from some kind of flu.  It was not ideal.

Nevertheless, I’ve been eager to see this post-apocalyptic adaptation for several years, as I’ve followed its journey from script to screen.  While my expectations were not set terribly high, I still left feeling underwhelmed by the experience.

The Road should be the definitive post-apocalyptic story, but the film lacks a certain punch that leaves it as emotionally bleak as the setting itself.  A combination of awkward narration, The Father’s complete lack of pessimism, and child acting, perhaps- but also a sense that I’ve seen this story before.  And it feels tired.

The aesthetics are by far the film’s strength.  The cinematography is gorgeous, the scenery is simultaneously stark and epic, and Nick Cave & Warren Ellis’ score is haunting as always.  The film does provide some insight into the story that had gone over my head when reading the book.  And though purists may object, I loved the way Nick Hillcoat shot the flashbacks— the amount of information and emotion he is able to convey in just one static shot, with no dialogue, is stunning.  That being said, I didn’t feel that connection with any of the present-day scenes.

I wonder if I would have been more engaged with the film if I had sat closer, or if the sound system was cranked up, or if viewed in a massive single-screen theater.  But even then, the film lacks a gravitas that I was really hoping for.  The apocalypse can be devastating to consider, but The Road proves that an overwhelmingly bleak setting is not enough to evoke that personal sense of ruin in the viewer.