as you prove worthy of the task)
Sometimes the road not taken intersects with the chosen path,
leading to difficult decisions like these that arise from a very plausible
variation of a “family feud.”
If it’s not Scottish feminism, it’s crap … bear
crap maybe … although, if so, it’s in the palace as well as the woods in this tale about independence vs. family bonding.
Slowly,
the sisters reconnect after Jack goes off to camp in the deeper part of the
woods, finally taking out his frustration on his innocent bike after it throws
its chain. Once the expressed
anger allows him to get his feelings clearly to the surface he returns to
possibly finalize things with Iris and Hannah but finds that forgiveness is the
order of the day, although I still contend that Hannah is the one with the most
egregious action of the bunch, both because she set out to snare an
unsuspecting guy into fatherhood—not that this doesn’t happen: I’m aware of one of my own
acquaintances doing the same without ever telling the limited-usage guy she was
pregnant nor telling her child who the father is (although, in Hannah’s defense
[as well as with the real woman I’m referring to], she had no intention of
involving him in the child’s life, but some might say that’s egregious as
well)—and because she knew that her sister had at least very protective
feelings for this emotionally-damaged guy and would object to Jack being
unknowingly used for her serendipitous scheme, as is the case in the film. Jack shares some blame, not for bedding
a willing adult female, despite the assumed likelihood that this is a one-off
(so to speak) opportunity with an “Ah, what the fuck?" (again, so to speak) lesbian
but for consciously (drunkenly, true, but still conscious enough to ejaculate—a
feat in itself when inebriated [I speak from experience there also. Never mind.]—therefore conscious enough
to know the who and why of his situation) living out his unrequited passion for
his dead brother’s ex-girlfriend through her lesbian sister (and when you write
all that down and re-read it a couple of times he seems even more of a
slimeball for doing it).
Well-intentioned Iris didn’t previously contribute anything to be
ashamed of but then she adds to the mix her instant rejection of both sibling
and (intended-to-be-more-than) best friend for their transgressions, pushing
both of them away so fiercely with no attempt at immediate (or even soon-cooled-off)
dialogue that she’s not fully innocent either, although it’s her rather easy
acceptance of Jack’s delayed expression of love for her (and his willingness to
be part of Hannah's baby’s life, if asked—and if, in fact, she’s even pregnant;
despite popular misconception, being lesbian doesn’t automatically make you
psychic) that brings this short-ish film (90 min.) to a warm, desired
conclusion. Obviously, the goal of
the story is to get Iris and Jack together, along with bringing some peace to
Hannah’s life, which happens, perhaps too facilely but still in an emotionally
acceptable manner in a film that primarily is valuable for its sense of honest
interactions and dialogue among sincere but troubled adults.
As
noted earlier, Jack is a key player here and his self-revelations are difficult
for him to admit to, but the pain of his brother’s death has obviously overwhelmed
him even while forcing him to confound the glowing memories his friends have of
Tom by revealing that this seeming saint was once a more selfish guy who
consciously made himself over as kinder in order to win over those friends and
provide more opportunities for himself.
Blurting out all of that inner turmoil at the 1-year memorial for Tom
alienates Jack from the rest of the pack, so he’s able to have a more effective
dialogue about his troubles when he and Hannah get simultaneously tight and
loose while sharing their agave
juice (I love the "fluid" nature of our language). But even more intimate,
without the need for trauma to bring forth meaningful admissions, are the
shared exchanges between Iris and Hannah throughout the film, allowed by a
lifetime of such private trust and sisterly care, making their estrangement all
the more painful for both of them (although, as even close siblings genuinely
do, they have ongoing interchanges that show some sibling-rivalry meanness such
as Iris sneaking some butter into vegan Hannah’s mashed potatoes just for a[n
unappreciated] laugh). The easy
way in which they pass information one to the other is a valuable aspect of
Shelton’s screenplay, ringing true to the best types of family relationships
(or so I’m told by Nina, who as a middle sister with two on each side [along
with an older and younger brother] experiences that kind of long-nutured intimacy while I as an only child with no connection even to my few cousins have
no immediate knowledge of such).
Although the ending may be too easily resolved for some (see http://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/article/Your-Sister-s-Sister-review-Great-film-derailed-3635443.php
for details on why noted San Francisco
Chronicle critic Mick LaSalle says “The last 20 minutes become a self-indulgent
wallow”), the authenticity of how these 3 interact is extremely effective (even
LaSalle agrees that, up to 65 min. in, Your
Sister’s Sister “is on track to becoming one of the best films of 2012”—a
remark that dangerously offers itself up as out-of-context overall praise for
an ad) in the simple manner by which these characters speak their confused
minds.
From
female-sibling interactions (and the man important to them both) in Your Sister’s Sister (a nice title in
that it’s semiotic implications of who is being referenced—the line comes from
the drunken conversation between Jack and Hannah, where Iris has primacy in the
statement/title because she’s the non-present one whose absence is crucial to
the other 2 for different reasons; Hannah becomes a complex revelation as the
deceptively semantic linguistic structure of being the second “sister” [even
though she’s older] leads to her important actual presence with Jack; and Jack
has an implied command of the situation by being the one who speaks the play of
words which defines the 2 women—shows subtly the dynamic relationships among
the 3 leads in the film) we move to a story of mother-daughter interactions (and
the man important them both, husband/father King Fergus [voice of Billy
Connolly]) in the latest Pixar/Disney animated feature, Brave (Mark Andrews, Brenda Chapman, Steve Purcell). While this movie doesn’t match the
heights achieved by the very best of previous Pixar triumphs (The top one for me
being Toy Story 3 [Lee Unkrich,
2010], with its marvelously optimistic ending where Woody, Buzz, and the other
toys are passed on to a new generation of childhood as Andy goes off to college
and his quest for adulthood, better following the maturing-hero path explored
by Joseph Campbell in his book The Hero
with a Thousand Faces [1949] and Karen Armstrong in A Short History of Myth [2005] rather than maintaining a frustrated
community protector attitude as explored by Robert Jewett and John Shelton
Lawrence in The Myth of the American
Superhero [2002], an insightful explication of how post-9/11 vigilante
mentality has negated the Campbell monomyth [seen nicely in Gladiator (Ridley Scott, 2000)] and
instead encouraged the continuity of the stunted sacrificial savior that we see
especially in the Batman films of Christopher Nolan [with The Dark Knight Rises set to conclude his trilogy less than a month
from now].), it does a great service by presenting us with a strong female
protagonist who challenges hidebound tradition and contributes to the
betterment of her kingdom even as she has to help undo a crisis that she’s
inadvertently created (again, a parallel of sorts with Your Sister’s Sister).
Princess Merida (voice of Kelly Macdonald) of the fiery red locks has an
equally fiery personality that aids her in maintaining her independence from an
expected forced marriage to a top clansman’s son but creates unintended
problems when the attempted strategy to serve her own needs backfires (she and
Hannah of the above film would have a lot to talk about someday, when Merida is
old enough to break out another bottle of that tequila).
Merida,
defying the wishes of her mother, Queen Elinor (voice of Emma Thompson, a
marvelously regal Brit in her own right), focuses more on her archery skills
than her lessons in arts and etiquette (and she’s damn good with a bow; if she
were to be transported from past to future to compete with Katniss Everdeen in
the Hunger Games they’d both likely make it to the finals but their likely
mutual respect would probably lead to another tie rather than either of them
being felled by the other). She has
no desire to fulfill the traditions of her storybook-era Scottish culture where
she’s to be wed to one of the goofy offspring of her father’s affiliates (the
one second from left in the photo looks suspiciously like San Francisco Giants’
pitcher Tim Lincecum; you have to wonder if Pixar’s Emeryville location right
across the bay from AT&T Park has anything to do with that—thanks to Nina
for the observation). Instead she
goes roaming into the deep forest (she probably passed Jack, sulking in his
little tent, wishing he could work some magic on Iris) where sprites lead her
to the home of a witch (voice of Julie Walters) who secures a spell into a
little cake with the intention of making Elinor change her mind about the
necessity of the impending nuptials, thereby freeing Merida to make her own
choices if she ever meets a guy that means more to her than her faithful
horse. Unfortunately, her demanding
mother doesn’t mean enough to her at this point in the story for her to be more
precise about the desired spell, so when Merida simply asks for something that
will change her fate she ends up with Mom sampling the cake and turning into a
bear. Now this isn’t the
traditional Disney talking bear (see The
Jungle Book [Wolfgang Reitherman, 1967] if you want ursine equal-footing
interactions with humans) because the Queen has her consciousness but walks,
talks, and acts like a wild bear to everyone but Merida, leading to big trouble
when obsessed bear-hunting King Dad (just like Ahab, Fergus lost a leg to a
huge beast, Mor’du the huge, angry bear who we later learn is also the result
of another of that witch’s spells because he mistakenly asked for physical power without
specifying how it would be manifested—the witch must have gone to law school
the way she twists around her verbal contracts).
Merida’s
story gets more convoluted with the bear spell scenes than the trailer would
imply and replaces the anticipated scenes of her athletic prowess (at least
with a bow and arrow) with plot twists that are more about questioning her
quest for independence (although she does convince her parents and the nobles
to end their arranged marriage tradition, a situation that might resonate with
children from Morocco to China today as this film inevitably finds its global
audience on DVD), but ultimately it tries to teach children that their
parental-imposed restrictions aren’t always just the result of power displays
and that heroic actions often come in unanticipated ways in times of
unanticipated crisis. (This tale
might also subconsciously teach a lesson about getting a written contract
whenever you do business with a witch—and be sure to pass it by your legal
team—but that may only be useful for those who make devilish bargains for
political gain. It may also slyly
remind boys to keep their hands away from where they don’t belong as I observed
when the key to Merida’s bedroom is secured by Maudie the maid between her
ample breasts in an attempt to keep the rebellious girl in the castle while the
suitorhood crisis is being resolved; the little guy close to me said “Eww!” at
the sight of something nestling in Maudie’s bosom so maybe it’ll be awhile
before he tries to copy such an action with one of his future classmates.) Whether you find the tale of Brave to be empowering or not (Merida
shows as much guilt as love in her sobbing statements to her
about-to-become-a-bear-forever-upon-the-second-sunrise mother, but this is what
it takes to break the spell), you can’t help but be mesmerized by the computer
animation in this movie with its spectacular renderings of hair texture (for
both Merida and the bears), castle and forest environments, flowing waterfalls,
etc. It’s hard to know now what
competition Pixar will face for the feature-length animation Oscar next year,
but Brave should bode well for them
unless box-office matters more than cinematic quality (at this writing Brave has hauled in a bit over $66
million domestically but that pales compared to Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted with $157 million; the two are
almost even in critics’ scores with both at 76 at Rotten Tomatoes, Brave at 69 and Madagascar 3 at 59 with the Metacritics tabulators, and both at 67 according to Movie Review Intelligence, so we’ll just
see how these two or any others end up several months from now).
Turning
briefly from the estrogen-fueled stories reviewed above to a passing comment on
something completely different we find ourselves with Adam Shankman’s Rock of Ages, based on a Broadway
musical with book by Chris D’Arienzo and songs from a bunch of ‘80s standbys
including Journey, Styx, Pat Benatar, and many others. Set in 1987 this musical movie is the
shallow story of a bunch of shallow people including a young woman, Sherrie (Julianne
Hough), along with a young guy, Drew (Diego Boneta), both aspiring musicians
working at L.A.’s Bourbon Room and hoping to someday have the fame of notorious
hedonist Stacee Jaxx (Tom Cruise).
Along the way you’ll find lots of other big names in the cast including
Alec Baldwin as the financially-challenged Bourbon Room owner, Russell Brand as
his goofy second-in-command, Paul Giamatti as Jaxx’s scumbag agent, and
Catherine Zeta-Jones as the Christian activist determined to shut down the
devil’s venom spewing from the Sunset Strip (although we find out she’s really
just a jilted lover of Jaxx from long ago). I only mention this one if you either have any fondness for
this music (which generally I don’t; for me the ‘80s were largely the
inescapable Madonna and Michael Jackson if I listened to contemporary hits but
more often I made attempts to find oldies stations that would take me back to
the ‘70s and beyond [even today listening to my local ‘60s-‘70s-80s station I
find it’s the ‘80s tunes that I recognize the least]) or are willing to see it
lampooned along with the inhabitants of the rock world of that time, as
everyone is climbing on each other to see who can get the furthest over the top
with no one taking any of it seriously except when Cruise is on stage doing a
terrific job of channeling Axl Rose or anyone like him from this era (for a really interesting side trip see Def
Leppard’s video praise of Cruise at http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/tom-cruise-rock-of-ages-movie-337992
[along with a BP-sponsored ad promoting the resurgence of the Gulf Coast; I
guess we’re clearly beyond the post-irony days of the early
post-9/11years]). It’s clearly an
alternative for those of you not so keen on Your
Sister’s Sister or Brave
(especially if you diet is deficient in big hair, leather, faded denim, really
short skirts, or polyester), although I’m not advocating testosterone as the
better hormone, just one found in more abundance here—as you’d expect in a
movie about the hard-rockin’ lifestyle where women are more relegated to being
waitresses or strippers than appreciated performers (although Mary J. Blige gets
some effective screen time with “Shadows of the Night,” Harden My Heart,” and
“Any Way You Want It”). This is
energetic and wacky funny, but if I were actually rating it I’d say only 2 ½
stars of 5 because it’s ultimately such a slim slice of silliness.
As
for an actual 5-star film, which happens to also be testosterone-driven and
clearly steers in a different direction from the two primary subjects of this
review, I’ll recommend another recent DVD re-acquaintance, as long as you’re
ready for its NC-17 sex scenes (no shown genitals but none needed to get the point
across [once again, so to speak]), Marlon Brando and Maria Schneider in
Bernardo Bertolucci’s 1972 Last Tango in
Paris. (With both director and
male lead nominated for Oscars, but neither were likely to win against George
Roy Hill’s immensely-popular The Sting
[which took Best Picture and Director] and Jack Lemmon getting his long-overdue Best Actor
honor in John Avildsen’s Save the Tiger
[Brando had no chance anyway after refusing his statue the previous year for
Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather];
for me, no one could touch Brando in Last
Tango that year [and very few performances ever will match such quality,
except for Brando’s other major loss for A
Streetcar Named Desire (Elia Kazan, 1951; even as much as I like Humphrey
Bogart in The African Queen [John Huston],
there’s just no comparison)], but even more galling is that Ingmar Bergman was
nominated for Best Director, along with producer for Best Picture and writer of
Best Original Screenplay, for his stunning Cries
and Whispers, yet received nothing for it, while his superb actresses
[especially Harriet Andersson and Liv Ullmann] weren’t even nominated nor was
this masterpiece in contention for Best Foreign Language Film [not that I’m
complaining too much about the win for François Truffaut’s Day for Night; there were a lot of worthy contenders in 1973]. At least Sven Nykvist won for Best
Cinematography in Bergman’s film.)
If
you (and I) haven’t already forgotten that I began the above paragraph praising
Last Tango in Paris, I’ll get back on
point with effusive praise for this devastating emotional assault that makes
the brutal Shame (Steve McQueen,
2011; see my review in the December 20, 2011 posting if you like) seem mild by
comparison. Brando, as a recent
widower who comes across Schneider when both are considering an empty
apartment, embodies the psychological and physical damage inflicted in the name
of first mindless passion and then reawakened love in a film that makes for a
devastating viewing experience but one trumping everything else mentioned in
this review combined (except for Cries
and Whispers, an equally stunning, debilitating experience to watch, but
only if you’re willing to put your soul on the line and see if you can survive
the encounter). If you’re not yet
ready for the confrontation of Last Tango
(with possibly the most powerful scene being Paul [Brando] berating his dead
ex-wife as her body lies in state; and you can make all the butter jokes you
want to try to soften the impact of what can be argued as a rape scene, given
the ambiguity of the “relationship,” but that clash of wills and bodies is as
overpowering for the viewer as it is for Jeanne [Schneider], the recipient of
Paul’s cruel attempt at connection [I’d better not even imply a pun
with that comment]), you might want to build up slowly with admirable
interpersonal offerings such as what you get with Your Sister’s Sister.
But after you’ve acquired a little emotional immunity I highly recommend
that you consider plunging into the
deep end with Last Tango in Paris
(but please distract the kids with Brave
until they’re well into high school before you even consider letting them join you in watching it).
If
you’d like to know more about Your
Sister’s Sister here are some suggested links:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlbKcGn9M1M
(in truth, this is almost everything essential about the film, but if you can’t
see the whole thing this is a reasonable substitute)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R13sOf27CJQ
(a 32 min. interview shot at the Toronto Film Festival with director/writer
Lynn Shelton and stars Emily Blunt, Mark Duplass)
If
you’d like to know more about Brave
here are some suggested links:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?annotation_id=annotation_380495&v=8zzSqWUmlts&feature=iv&src_vid=_8cLhckSAAw
(here’s a trailer as shown in Japan, with English subtitles)
If
you’d like to know more about Rock of
Ages here are some suggested links:
http://www.youtube.com/topic/sv4vi3b589g/?feature=results_main
(a whole cluster of trailers, featurettes, interviews, etc.; knock yourself
out)
If
you’d like to know more about Last Tango
in Paris here are some suggested links:
http://www.criterion.com/current/posts/834-last-tango-in-paris
(an in-depth [what else would you expect?] from Pauline Kael)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2U7rU2I1f34
(opening scene from the film, 3:20)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uki1s75pObU
(collage of various images from the film set to music, 9:46; helps give you a
sense of it but doesn’t substitute for the real thing)
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