Married Life
September 23rd, 2007
“A funny story, in its way, about a man who wanted to poison his wife and found he’d be lost without her.” With these words, Richard (Pierce Brosnan) sums up the events of Ira Sachs’s second film. Note the careful qualification “in its way,” which already suggests that perhaps Married Life isn’t all that funny, and maybe not much of a story, either. In fact, it’s the first film at this year’s New York Film Festival that I wish I had walked out of.
Read the entire review on About.com.
Married Life. Ira Sachs, 2007. *
Mississippi Mermaid
July 24th, 2007
Even a “minor” Truffaut is still a delight. Jean-Paul Belmondo plays the owner of a tobacco plantation on Reunion who places an ad for a bride… and Catherine Deneuve gets off the boat. But much like in 2001’s overlooked Birthday Girl, the mysterious stranger is no innocent. There’s murder, international intrigue, and a man so smitten with the young Deneuve he’s willing to throw his life away. What else do you need?
La Sirène du Mississippi. François Truffaut, 1969. ***
Molière
June 8th, 2007
“One day, they won’t say ’speak French to me,’ they will say: speak to me in the language of Molière!” Says Molière, played by an exuberant Romain Duris, waving his tankard before he falls of the tavern table, much to the amusement of the assembled Parisians. But we all know it’s true. And once a country’s Greatest Writer has been canonized, it’s only a matter of time before he gets a movie that conflates his life with his work in the style of Shakespeare in Love and Factotum. Unrestrained by fact, the liberties taken by this approach are more shapely and palpable than the usual flabby biopic. Molière turns out to be an especially endearing attempt at the budding subgenre.
The film uses an undocumented period in Molière’s life to imagine the genesis of his play Tartuffe–which allows writer and director Laurent Tirard to have fun with the classic comedy. The story begins in 1658, when the actor is offered a deal he can’t refuse: Monsieur Jordain (Fabrice Luchini), a wealthy merchant, will pay off Molière’s debt if he trains him as an actor to impress the haughty widow Célimène (Ludivine Sagnier). For this task, Moliere takes the name of Tartuffe, pretends to be a priest, and moves into Jordain’s house–which leads to all sorts of farcial and amorous hijinx involving Jordain’s wife (Laura Morante), daughter (Fanny Valette), dog, and scheming society friends.
Accomplished and witty, the film even manages to wring morsels of truth out of the highly entertaining complications: who knew Jean-Baptiste Molière was the artistic forebear of Preston Sturges’ Sullivan, endlessly distraught over the value of comedy? Molière is scheduled to open on July 27.
Molière. Laurent Tirard, 2007. ****
Flannel Pajamas
April 19th, 2007
Dullsville. In Jeff Lipsky’s story of a marriage, talk talk talk does not add up to plot or character. Justin Kirk and Julianne Nicholson play thoroughly unremarkable people doing thoroughly unremarkable things; then they break up. Occasional gestures toward kitchen sink realism are undermined by clumsy, overwritten dialogue that doesn’t go anywhere and leaves us feeling nothing. Who are these people, and who cares? Justin Kirk is wasted; Flannel Pajamas is 124 minutes long.
Flannel Pajamas. Jeff Lipsky, 2006. *
- Very mixed reception on Rotten Tomatoes: 55%
- Andrew O’Hehir adored it
Odds & Ends, New Jersey Edition
April 15th, 2007
From the secure, undisclosed New Jersey location where we’re weathering the storm, here’s a muckworld roundup, covering the triumphs, marriages, deaths, drug convictions, and ambivalent critical reception of five artists so famous their first names are enough.
Jami
I have neither video nor photos to prove it, but an exquisite literary time was had at KGB Bar on Friday, where Jami Attenberg celebrated tax day and the release of her Instant Love paperback together with Pauls Toutonghi (Red Weather), Darin Strauss (Chang and Eng and The Real McCoy) and Min Jin Lee (Free Food for Millionaires.) Jami read a story about anonymous sex with accountants. Darin Strauss played the Dobro, and Anya Ulinich sang the Internationale. I have it on good authority that less than half of those in attendance actually recognized the song, which indicates that it’s been a good long while since everybody was angelic and sentimental about the workers. The dustbin of history, indeed.
Kermit
Finally, good news from New Orleans: Kermit Ruffins got hitched! I realize St. James Infirmary isn’t quite appropriate, but it’s the best Kermit on YouTube. Congratulations, and thanks for all the BBQ. (And thank you for the tip, Robbi Jeanne.)
Kurt
“If you read Kurt Vonnegut when you were young — read all there was of him, book after book as fast as you could the way so many of us did — you probably set him aside long ago,” begins Verylin Klinkenborg’s piece in the Times. I followed her advice and just picked up Cat’s Cradle for the first time in 15 years, and it’s even better than I remembered. Around 1999, I saw Vonnegut speak, but at that point, he wasn’t my wavelength at all and just seemed like another bitter old Luddite griping about how superior the post office was to sending email. My friends Dusty and Kathleen enjoyed hanging out with him afterwards, so perhaps it was me who was bitter. Either way, Kurt could write. John Leonard in The Nation: “God Bless You, Mr. Vonnegut.” Mourning at Metafilter and on Maud Newton.
Quentin
That Cleopatra rant was my last word on Grindhouse, but there are a few more pieces worth pointing out: Filmbrain, whom I had the pleasure of meeting last week, thinks Quentin needs a girlfriend, and the Looker agrees with my assessment that Death Proof is just way dull. At The House Next Door, Keith Uhlich and Matt Zoller Seitz have a debate that’s twice as exciting as the actual movie–and almost as long.
Trey
Trey pleads guilty. IANAL, but five years probation with mandatory prison in case he slips sounds like a tough deal. Hang in there, Trey. We love you. Push on ’till the day and don’t you listen to that evil Amy Winehouse. A video of better times:
