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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 01 February 2004

The Sundance Film Festival is the showcase of independent cinema in America.  If I listed some of the recent award winners from this festival you would probably tune out with a blank look on your face.  Budding filmmakers churn out their small films on shoe-string budgets in the hope of success.  Executives and scouts from the big-name studios attend the festival each year and will buy those films they think show promise to release as their own.  This isn’t some noble gesture by Hollywood to reward independent cinema.  The studios are interested largely in profit and pick up cheap Sundance “bargains” to reap a few million dollars in cinemas across the country.  The most famous example would have to be The Blair Witch Project which Artisan Entertainment purchased at the 1999 festival and then beautifully marketed to a total U.S. gross of over $140m.

Sundance is held every January and the 2004 has just been and gone.  Critics from the States have already detailed in their columns those films they think have a chance at making it to cinemas.  It’s not usually a long list.  There are a lot of great films but great isn’t usually good enough.  Only a handful of Sundance films each year will find financial success.

At the 2003 Sundance Film Festival, the critics honoured as their top choices – Capturing The Friedmans and American Splendor.  The later screened in Australia last September (and if you didn’t see it then you really did miss out).  Capturing The Friedmans will open here in the coming months.  But critics aren’t always right so there’s also an Audience Award judged by each member of the general public who attends a film at the Festival.  Last year their winners were… Whale Rider (the New Zealand film loved by most everyone who has seen it) and… The Station Agent.

It’s a simple, elegant story about three people needing friendship but who aren’t necessarily looking for it.  Finbar McBride (Dinklage) is a 4’6” dwarf who has inherited a deserted train station in a small desolate New Jersey town.  Finn has always been fascinated by trains and moves there to escape the bigger city.  He likes to keep to himself and you sense he is sick of people staring and laughing at him in the street.

On his first day at his new home he meets two people who he will soon get to know.  Joe Oramas (Cannavale) operates a small hotdog and coffee van.  He is running the business for his father who is ill.  Olivia Harris (Clarkson) lives alone in town and is still coming to grips with the separation from her husband and the death of her only son.

I was touched in places by Thomas McCarthy’s screenplay and I can see why the film has found such high appeal from audiences.  At the Screen Actors’ Guild Awards in America, their acting peers have considered Dinklage and Clarkson worthy of nominations and yes, they do deserve them.  Dinklage is great in a softly spoken role but Clarkson almost steals the show with her trouble character.  As a footnote, the entire cast has been nominated for best ensemble at the Guild Awards alongside In America, The Return Of The King, Mystic River and Seabiscuit.  That means something.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 22 January 2004

The following self-assessment exam represents 100% of your grade in Film 101.  Please read the case study below before answering the questions which follow.

Case Study

Reuben Feffer (Stiller) is an expert risk assessor at a leading insurance company.  He is very conservative, somewhat neurotic and never takes a risk himself without fully calculating what he’s up against.  Reuben has just married Lisa Kramer (Messing), a lovely lady who we know nothing about (a deliberate ploy so that we don’t feel sorry for her I’m sure).  On their honeymoon, Reuben and Lisa are approached by a nudist named Claude (Azaria) who asks them to come scuba diving on his boat.  Reuben pulls out at the last minute with cold feet.  When he returns to the boat a few hours later, he finds Lisa and Claude making passionate love inside the cabin.

Reuben heads back home to New York.  His best friend, Sandy (Hoffman), encourages Reuben to come with him to a swanky party.  There he is approached by a waitress named Polly Prince (Aniston) who remembers him from middle school.  Polly details her immediate past – she’s never been married, hates commitment, loves spontaneity and has been in eight consecutive doomed relationships.  On paper, she is anything but a perfect match for Reuben.

Part A (5 marks)

If you were a cliché ridden Hollywood screenwriter only interested in creating feel-good schmaltz garbage in the interests of financial profit, what plot developments would follow and how would this film end?

Answer Guide – Part A (award 1 mark for each of the following points)

• Reuben will go out on a date with Polly.  It will go horribly but in being insanely funny,  neither will seem to mind.

• The start seeing each other more and will be on the verge of falling in love.

• Lisa will then return unexpectedly out of the blue looking for forgiveness from Reuben.

• Polly will then think she has no chance with Reuben and will stop returning his calls.

• His father will then give some advice and from utter confusion, Reuben will understand in an instant with crystal clarity who he loves – Polly.

• Reuben will then goes after Polly only to find out from a close friend that she’s leaving town on a plane in just two hours.

• He will go racing after her, they will look deeply into each other’s eyes, express their true feelings and live happily ever after.

• All the above will be inter-laced with tired, lame, predictable jokes (the best of which appear in the trailer).

• A bonus mark is to be award to anyone who points out the irony of a film about telling us to take risks when the filmmakers themselves don’t take a single risk.

• A further bonus mark to anyone mentioning the unoriginality of writer/director John Hamberg or questioning his sanity.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 29 January 2004

It’s been a week since I’ve seen In America (I’m behind with my reviews) but there’s something enchanting about this film that keeps it in the forefront of my mind.  Virtually every film (both big and small) follows a familiar “three act” structure.  That is to say, we are introduced to the characters in the first act, the story is developed in the second act, and then things are wrapped up in the third and final act.  What surprised me about In America was that this structure couldn’t be found.  We only truly learn about the characters deep into the story and the film’s finish isn’t easy to anticipate.

The man responsible for this screenplay knows a thing or two about filmmaking.  Irish director Jim Sheridan’s has touched audiences before with his dramas My Left Foot and In The Name Of The Father.  As many have pointed out, In America is Sheridan’s “most personal” film to date as it is heavily based on his own life.  He co-wrote the script with his two daughters, Naomi and Kirsten, and all three were rewarded last Tuesday with an Oscar nomination in the original screenplay category.

The film centres on an Irish family immigrating to America in search of a new and better life.  Johnny (Considine) is struggling to find work as an actor forcing Sarah (Morton) to get a job at a small café to help pay the bills.  Their two daughters Christy and Ariel are excited about the fresh start and the change in scenery is helping heal recent wounds.  There was a once a son in the family but he passed away back in Ireland and things haven’t been the same since.

These dramas may sound depressing but the story is beautifully uplifting in that it is told from the point of view of Christy and Ariel.  Like kids of their age, they’re fascinated by even the smallest matter and life seems so much better their innocent eyes.  Christy and Ariel make friends with an African-America resident in the rundown apartment block and whilst I can’t go into too much more detail here (it’s a key part of the plot), the way his “troubles” are expressed and visualised is truly unique.

Super performances are turned in from sisters Sarah and Emma Bolger as the two children.  It’s hard to find good young actors so credit to Jim Sheridan for finding them.  The remaining three stars are largely unheralded by Hollywood standards but Paddy Considine (24 Hour Party People), Samantha Morton (Minority Report) and Djimon Hounsou (Gladiator) are in touch with Sheridan’s intentions and deliver appropriately poignant performances.  As a footnote, both Morton and Hounsou have received deserved Oscar nominations this year for their roles.

Rated PG, In America is an ideal film for any audience.  Kids will be entertained and adults touched by the story being told.  There’s a little “magic” in the air.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 21 January 2004

Edward Bloom was the “biggest thing” the town of Ashton had ever seen.  He was the town’s best basketball, football and baseball player.  Men wanted to be him and women wanted to be with him.  Soon after his 18^th birthday, Edward knew it was time to leave his simple life behind.  He was “destined for larger things”.

Accompanied by a 14-foot giant named Karl he had befriended, Edward set off and adventure he found.  Down a dark and haunted road, Edward came across the hidden town of Spectre – a mystery unto itself.  He met the woman who would become his wife at a circus run by a short man with a unique ability.  He fought undercover in the Vietnam War and returned to America with strange company.  He caught a legendary catfish using his wedding ring as bait on the day his only son was born.

That son was William (Crudup) who grew up adoring and believing his father’s stories.  Now, William is married and hasn’t spoken to his father in over three years.  He is angry that his father led him to believe such nonsensical tales for so long.  Will tried hard to get the truth from his father about what really happened but it only led to crazier and more elaborate stories.

Now, his father is dying and somewhat reluctantly, Will has returned to the family home to be with his dad for the last time.  At his bedside Will hopes finally for some straight answers and pleads with his father “to just show me who you are for once”.  Edward is not going to make it easy for Will but in the end, everything will make perfect sense…

Such a fantasy could only have been directed by the brilliant Tim Burton.  You never know what to expect from Burton and his films take us into strange new worlds laced with originality.  Just look at Batman, Edward Scissorhands, Beetlejuice, Ed Wood and Sleepy Hollow.  He has an extraordinary vision and an imagination second-to-none.  Once you’ve seen this film, you can only look back at amazement at how impossible this must have been to visualise from a simple script.  I am deliberately trying not to reveal too much at the risk of spoiling its beauty for those yet to see it.  Just see how many references to water you can spot.

The story is told in the present tense with flashbacks and retellings of Edward’s great stories.  This provides both joy and sadness.  It is all leading to an emotion packed ending that will undoubtedly leave you thinking about the film but also about your own life.  It could have been too unbelievable or perhaps too sentimental but Tim Burton and screenwriter John August (writer of the underrated Go) have nailed the finale with ultimate precision.

Ewan McGregor (Trainspotting) plays the younger Edward with Albert Finney (Erin Brockovich) playing the elder.  They do share an uncanny resemblance.  My favourite character was the giant, Karl, played by Matthew McGrory.  He’s very tall himself in real life but the specific effects and trick photography make him the most realistic giant I’ve ever seen.

My most looked for quality in a movie is a great story.  Well here is a great story about someone telling great stories.  In the words of William Bloom - “it’s doesn’t always make sense, but that’s what kind of story this is.”

Details

Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 24 January 2004

I find it hard to believe Underworld was filmed on a budget of just $23m (as reported at the Internet Movie Database).  If so, they’ve certainly gotten value for their dollar.  Makes you wonder how they end up spending $100m or more on so many action blockbusters.  This film has some awesome looking sets, many detailed costumes, heaps of dangerous stunts, and numerous touch-ups with the special effects paintbrush.

For centuries, vampires and werewolves (known as lycans) have fought against each other in a violent war.  No one can remember how this war began but the vampires have seized the advantage with very few lycans remaining in the world.  Selene (Beckinsale) is what is known as a death dealer – a vampire charged with roaming the night in search of lycans.  On a routine evening, she sights two lycans but they escape her grasp.  What interests her most is what they were up to – they were following a human.

As humans are unknowing of this war and serve no use, this intrigues Selene.  She identifies him as Michael (Speedman) and tracks him down but he too is oblivious to why he is so important.  Her investigations will uncover a conspiracy she could never imagine.  There are many power hungry individuals involved and their plans will change the world of vampires and lycans forever.

It’s quite confusing to be honest and there’s an abundance of characters who at times are hard to differentiate.  The dark setting (with the film shot entirely at night) doesn’t help this problem.  Still, it’s better see an intricate plot rather than one which is too silly and simple.  At least screenwriter Danny McBride has made a concerted effort.

Kate Beckinsale is great as our feminine action hero.  It’s nice to see her not typecast as a romantic starlet ala Pearl Harbor and Serendipity.  Her costume happens to be a nice tight fit which I’m sure was no accident.  Not sure why she wears it but few audience members will care.  Late in the film sees the arrival of English actor Bill Nighy who looks very menacing under his make-up.  You may remember him as the only good thing in Love Actually and he’s great here also.  I had never heard of Nighy a year ago but now I see him as a promising talent.

It’s a bit of a stretch at just on two hours and could have been trimmed in places to speed up matters.  Maybe I’m just not a big enough fan of vampire movies (there seems to be so many these days) but I do admit to enjoying Underworld most of the way.