Cinema Salon redux?

I’ve received no indication yet when, or whether, auditorium film programs will resume at the Clark, but either way, I’m reviving this website, starting with quick reactions to the backlog of films I’ve watched over the past six months, in a series of composite reviews – new features, new documentaries, old films, recent television series – that I will get to in quick succession.  To expedite the process of catching up and getting current, for most films I will give only a brief recommendation, or the reverse, but supply direct links to Metacritic summary of opinion and Netflix availability, and also rankings in Film Comment and Indiewire year-end polls of critics.  

In the spirit of renewal, I am giving this blog a new look.  I’ll continue to tinker with design and content, so feel free to comment or advise, either by blog comment or email to:  ssatullo@clarkart.edu

Checking my list

For the Clark’s 50^th anniversary in 2005, I programmed a film series based on my choices for the “Top Directors Younger Than the Clark,” the careers to watch, of “filmmakers for the 21^st century, whose names will be attached to some of the most thought-provoking, funny, and passionate movies forthcoming.”  As I survey the best films of 2013, I had occasion to revisit that list, and how I arrived at my choices.  

(As usual, I include links to Metacritic’s collective critical rating and Netflix availability for each film, and also its ranking in year-end critics polls from Film Comment and IndieWire.)

One of my choices back then, Richard Linklater, produced my very favorite film of 2013, Before Midnight (MC-94, FC #3, IW #3, NFX), which I already reviewed here.  Another, Alfonso Cuaron, got the Best Director Oscar for Gravity (MC-96, FC #7, IW #5, NFX), my review here.

Two more of my predictive favorites, David O. Russell and Alexander Payne, were nominated for Best Director and Best Picture.  Russell’s American Hustle (MC-90, FC #19, IW #15, NFX) builds upon the successes of The Fighter and Silver Linings Playbook, taking Christian Bale and Amy Adams from one, Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence from the other, but I’ll need a second look before I put it in the class of its predecessors.

Payne’s Nebraska (MC-86, FC #18, IW #17, NFX) represents a return to home ground, and to form -- in stark, desolately beautiful black & white -- after the excursions to California wine country in Sideways and to Hawaii in The Descendants, but his precisely observant and deliciously dry wit still (con)descends a bit into slapstick and schmaltz.  (He almost always goes wrong with the scene where someone slugs somebody else.)   

One of the Coen brothers was born after 1955, so they snuck on to my list, until schedule was cut back from 12 to 10.  Their latest, Inside Llewyn Davis (MC-92, FC #1, IW #2, NFX) was a critical favorite that got no Oscar love.  As for me, I liked it better than their Oscar winner No Country for Old Men, but not as much as the subsequent A Serious Man or even their surprising remake of True Grit.  Like the movie itself, Oscar Isaac as Llewyn was amazing while he was singing, and purposefully annoying the rest of the time.

Of my other 2005 choices, Cameron Crowe has not made a film that came up to my earlier expectation, and neither has Atom Egoyan.  Lukas Moodyson made Mammoth, a film with Michelle Williams and Gael Garcia Bernal, which I rather liked, and has another well-received film not yet released in the U.S.  Michael Winterbottom has continued to churn out diverse, inventive films at an amazing rate, all of which I’m happy to see, but the high points have been the three he’s made with Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon, Tristram Shandy: A Cock & Bull Story, The Trip, and forthcoming, The Trip to Italy.

Of my chosen women directors, Sofia Coppola has gone on to make Marie Antoinette, which I heartily endorse; Somewhere, which left me cold; and last year’s The Bling Ring, which I found better than could be expected, given the subject.  Gurinder Chadha has fallen off the map, but another young woman to watch has clearly taken her place among my favorites, Sarah Polley.

Dueling wits

I’m a big fan of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but not so much of Joss Whedon’s other work, so I wasn’t sure how I’d react to his home movie version of Much Ado About Nothing (2013, MC-78, NFX) but it turned out a delight.  Joss makes a practice of inviting friends over his Santa Monica house for readings of Shakespeare, and after the rigors of his superhero blockbuster The Avengers, he gathered them at his home for twelve days and turned out this lively contemporary adaptation in lustrous black & white.  The cast does a good job of rendering the dialogue in surprisingly demotic fashion.  Amy Acker is excellent as Beatrice, and Alexis Denisof (of Buffy) pairs nicely as Benedict, trading barbs until they can acknowledge their mutual attraction.  Whedon regular Nathan Fillion makes an offbeat but effective Dogberry, the comical constable.  The rest of the cast does a good job of keeping up.  It’s dashed off, but not slapdash, and reinforces Whedon as a filmmaker to watch.

I thought it would be fun to take another look at Kenneth Branagh’s 1993 version of Much Ado About Nothing  (NFX), with him as Benedict and Emma Thompson as Beatrice, and while remaining enjoyable, it has easily as many flaws and gaps.  The leads are fine, and Denzel Washington holds his own, Kate Beckinsale is lovely, but Michael Keaton’s Dogberry is much broader and less effective, Keanu Reeves makes a stolid villain, and Robert Sean Leonard simply doesn’t have it.  The Tuscan villa setting is striking, but not so much all the scurrying and scampering of the company around it.  Gotta love Emma, however, and she brought out the best in Kenneth for a while.