Closer (2004)

Dir: Mike Nichols
Writer: Patrick Marber
Starring: Natalie Portman, Julia Roberts, Jude Law, Clive Owen

Maybe the ultimate Rorschach test of a movie for all people. Or, specifically, in terms of men and women? The film has no redeemable characters. There's something amiss with each one. There's no saving here (thought it's discussed often) and there's no rising above the ugliness of humanity. It's because human behavior, especially in regards to romantic relationships, is ugly.

I decided to pluck this DVD out of my collection to view because I had just watched Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? via Netflix. I realized that they shared the same director, Mike Nichols, and as I watched Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton verbally spar, I was reminded of Closer and how it, too, portrayed verbally sparring relationships. Both are based on plays and centered on four people--two men, two women. They are both bleak films, but I'd say Closer is outrightly cold.

My husband completed a project while I watched Woolf and at the end all he could say was, "I wasn't paying attention but were those people all crazy? Like, they were in a looney bin, right?" After watching Closer with me, he remarked, "Well, that was the most depressing movie I've ever seen," and we discussed which character was the least-hated. We had differences of opinion there, and that's what leads me to think the movie is so uncomfortable for people to watch because these characters are awful--but inherently human, like the viewer. There may be slivers of your own behavior in Anna, Dan, Alice, and Larry...though I don't know any one who would admit ties.

All the actors are exceptional--I personally think Clive Owens' Larry to be the most remarkable performance. (Natalie Portman's Alice a close second!) He's an outrightly disgusting man: he's a doctor but he gets involved in online sex-chats at work, he uses brutal language and his presence is so visceral though he never moves a finger to hit anyone. But out of all four, he's the most honest character. But I do think he lies a few times, simply as a means to an end....in my own interpretation. Perhaps his fantastic acting was because Owens played the character in the original play; he nailed the simmering temper, the brash masculinity and disconcerting behavior of Larry. The other actors are great as well, but Larry was the most fun to watch. ('Fun' may be the wrong word...)

I hadn't watched this movie in my collection for years--I think probably because it does have a lasting psychological, depressing impact. I must have been in college the last time, which was a very different point in my life. Now that I'm married and, honestly, more secure about many things, including my relationship, I'm fascinated by the film in a completely new way. Again, this goes back to the way it acts as a Rorschach test. Days and weeks later, I'm still thinking about it. I wonder how I'll feel about it ten years from now?

The Best: There are so many great moments in the movie, it's hard to choose with the beautiful music playing over the slo-mo opening or Anna and Larry's marriage-breaking fight or Larry turning the screw deeper into Dan's pathetic psyche or Dan fixing upon a name on the wall or... okay, I will choose one: when Alice meets Dan at Anna's apartment and knowing that Dan has betrayed her, forces Anna to take a portrait of her in tears.

Fact: Casino Royale femme fatale Eva Green was originally going to make her Hollywood debut in this film as Alice, but she dropped out and the role went to Natalie Portman--who garnered a Best Supporting Actress nomination.

Rating: ********** (10 out of 10)

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011)

Dir: David Fincher
Writers: Stieg Larsson (novel), Steve Zaillian
Starring: Rooney Mara, Daniel Craig, Christopher Plummer, Stellan Skarsgard

Having seen Stieg Larsson's novels all over the subways a couple of years ago, I did some research into the brightly-covered book and learned that it might be something interesting to read. If anything else, I'm a sucker for cultural phenomenons--I begrudgingly read the Twilight novels, after all. So I read all three books pretty rapidly, watched the Swedish films, and though I wouldn't call the books or the Swedish movies my favorites, I do think Lisbeth Salander is one of fiction's greatest characters.

When I heard Hollywood would be adapting the book, I was sure to be disappointed with their directing choice, since the book was so mainstream, and they'd probably want to make it palpable to a broad movie-going audience. I almost jumped with joy when they named my favorite gothic auteur, David Fincher, as director. He's directed some of my favorite films of all time, like Seven, Fight Club, and The Social Network. If there's something Fincher readily understands it's human darkness and high-tension atmosphere.

I liked Rooney Mara as Salander, who admittedly played Lisbeth completely differently than the stellar Noomi Rapace in the Swedish versions. The extras on the blu-ray show how closely she worked with Fincher on getting this character across on screen - with the clothes, make-up, sideways glances, demeanor, and telling camera angles. One of my favorite angles was in the scene after Lisbeth is raped by her government-appointed guardian, after she has washed away the pain, and she sits smoking, thinking and the camera zooms from above and goes over her until her face is up-close, but upside down. She's hatching a devious plan.

And though Lisbeth is the epitome of darkness, Mara still plays her with vulnerability just under the surface. She's intelligent, offputting, and cold but she can still feel sadness, pain, and even love. Daniel Craig also impressed me as Lisbeth's foil--the straight-laced, kind of metro journalist. When I think of Craig, I think of Bond, and he easily shed that persona here with his somewhat bumbling ways. When he gets scraped by a bullet, leaving a slight gash, he is frightened and needs Lisbeth to take care of him. Bond would have kept running after the bad guy, and save the girl for after.

All in all the film impressed me more than the Swedish film and even the book. The story might have been hard to follow at times, but Fincher still had me. I hope he gets to direct the sequels!

The Best: Rooney Mara. She redefined Lisbeth and carried the entire movie; you couldn't look away when she was in a scene. I'm eager to see her in her next role...I hear she's already filmed a Terrence Malick flick with Ryan Gosling (though I'm sure that won't come out any time soon) and she's currently filming mere blocks away in Central Park with Steven Soderbergh for something called The Bitter Pill.

Fact: While filming a scene in a diner, the cast and crew were surprised to find out that Ellen Nyqvist, daughter of Michael Nyqvist, the first actor to play Mikael Blomkvist, was working there as a waitress while attending school. Upon finding out, they wrote in a few extra lines for her, allowing her to interact with her father's successor, Daniel Craig.

Rating: ********* (9 out of 10)

The Usual Suspects (1995)

Dir: Bryan Singer
Writer: Christopher McQuarrie
Starring: Kevin Spacey, Gabriel Byrne, Chazz Palminteri, Pete Postlethwait, Stephen Baldwin, Benicio del Toro, Kevin Pollack

There is probably no other movie that I've seen more than The Usual Suspects. I know the script by heart, the beats of the music as it coincides with a beat in the editing (coincidentally, I just found out the editor was also the composer on this movie - no wonder it works so beautifully!), and nearly every intricacy in the plot. I use the word 'nearly' because this movie is more rewatchable than any other movie: there's always something new to ascertain.

In fact, when I sat down to write this the line running through my head was when Verbal Kint looks up at Dave Kujan with his bad hand and says, "How do you shoot the devil in the back? What if you miss?" How am I supposed to write a review of one of my favorite movies of all time? How do I get it right?

For starters, my thirteen-year-old self watched the rented movie in the basement of our family's house in Leavenworth, Kansas. I remember following along raptly, sometimes confused, but always curious. When it ended, I was dumbfounded. I rewound it and watched it again. I probably said something to myself like "That was the best movie ever!" I saw this movie in the midst of my introduction to Hitchcock, and it makes sense since this movie has a very updated 'noir' feel to it. There's no icy blond, but there is something dark to unravel at hand.

Kevin Spacey gives one of the best performances of his career as Verbal Kint, and along with his other 1995-starring roles in Swimming with Sharks and Seven, I became a bonefied fan. For a time, there was nobody more chameleon-like than him. This movie also marks major debuts for director Bryan Singer and writer Christopher McQuarrie; unfortunately I don't think either of them have topped this masterpiece since.

This maze of a movie is taut, sometimes funny, and always mysterious. It also has one hell of a twist ending. It was great rewatching it with a friend who had never seen it (but the ending was spoiled for him). It still hasn't lost it's power nearly 17 years later (woah!), and because they keep on releasing different version with new extras, I currently own three copies of The Usual Suspects on DVD. Rewatchability is always a major factor for owning a DVD--I know I have some movies that have little rewatchability factor.

The Best: the final scene. It's perfect. And also? The eerie ghostlike presence when the name 'Keyser Soze' is uttered in the film. The lines are great! The art direction, too! The music! The editing! Fenster's unintelligible accent! Seriously, everything is great.

Fact: Al Pacino read for the part of Dave Kujan (Palminteri), but had to pass due to scheduling conflicts. Pacino has since noted that this is the film he regrets turning down the most.

Rating: ********** (10 out of 10)

Reprise (2006)

Dir: Joachim Trier
Writers: Joachim Trier, Eskil Vogt
Starring: Anders Danielsen Lie, Espen Klouman-Høiner, Viktoria Winge

While packing for Paris, I looked at my DVD collection scanning for something that Jesse and I could watch together. I picked Reprise because Jesse grew up watching foreign movies with his father (it's Norwegian), and there are a few important sequences that happen in Paris that I wanted to rewatch. On our third night in Paris, after three days of constant walking and exploring and reveling in the nightlife, we chose to get into our comfortable hotel bed and watch the movie.

The film centers on two best friends, Phillip and Erik, who are writers. The film opens with both of them dropping their novel manuscripts in a mailbox in Oslo, Norway. From that moment the viewer jumps to an imaginary sequence (narrated) about their impending fame from being intellectual writers with published novels, to the reality set six months after that fateful send-off. It's an interesting premise, and the characters and setting of Oslo really guide the film through it's many plots and subplots.

What's most relevant among these plots is the major theme (the titular subject) that sometimes we'd like to do things over. That perhaps we don't have regrets, because through no fault of our own, something disastrous lay in the path we had set for ourselves and we can't go back. One character tries to adjust to his new path, the other tries to repeat everything as it was when it was 'good.' It's definitely a universal feeling, to want things to turn out differently--but, sometimes it simply doesn't.

It's not the best film in the world, but it's an interesting film from a young filmmaker. It finds influences in Jean-Luc Godard's French New Wave style and even Jean-Pierre Jeunet's more updated slick directing. But though it has many elements that sometimes collide over the narrative, I love it. It's sometimes frenetic, sometimes slow, but I'm always curious as to where the story and the characters will go next. The movie may have its flaws, but it's successful. I probably love it more because of it's weird nuances. And I'm looking forward to Trier's next endeavor.

On a sidenote, the subject matter of the film, and perhaps even the way it is filmed was particularly inspiring to me when I saw it a couple of years ago on a random Netflix recommendation. I was then working on my first attempt at a novel (NaNoWriMo), and I thought back to this movie frequently and believe it did motivate me and influence the narrative in certain ways.

The Best: There's really so many great elements in the film, from the interesting voice-over narration and quick cuts to the performances. I suppose the sequence I enjoyed the most was the heartbreaking 'reprise' trip to Paris that Phillip takes with his ex-girlfriend Kari, played with alien beauty by Viktoria Winge. It made me shudder with relatable emotion.

Fact:  In the movie, there is a reclusive Norwegian author both Phillip and Erik idolize and want very much to meet and follow in his footsteps. In the movie his name is Sten Egil Dahl, and apparently he's based on Norwegian writer Tor Ulven. Ulven gave only one interview in his career, but he is regarded as one of the most important writers in Norway during the eighties and nineties.

Rating: ********* (9 out of 10)

Belle de Jour (1967)

Dir: Luis Buñuel
Writer: Joseph Kessel (novel), Luis Buñuel, Jean-Claude Carrière
Starring: Catherine Deneuve, Jean Sorel, Pierre Clémenti

I remember seeing this movie as a teenager, and though it's not particularly racy, it was still about something taboo to me at the time. It was also my introduction to one of my favorite French actresses, Catherine Deneuve.

The film centers on Séverine (a name I've come to love, it's so French!), the frigid and elegant housewife to Pierre, a handsome surgeon. They look the perfect couple, but Séverine has a lot of inner turmoil regarding her sensuality - she brushes off her adoring husband constantly, but dreams of being dominated sexually. So, she does what anybody would do and decides to become a prostitute--but only during the day! Thus, Belle de Jour is her name.

Directed by Buñuel, who was famous for working on psychological and surrealist films with Dalí (Un Chen Andalou - I'll never forget that eye-slicing shot!), the plot definitely fits with his asthetic. He loves exploring the inner mind and the reasons people do what they do. The movie is not abstract but has abstract moments of daydreams, quick cuts, and silence as Séverine ponders her existence. It still has a very '60s feel, and I enjoyed it for that, but also because I was intrigued by this female central character and her motivations.

The film looks great, and that also extends to the beautiful Deneuve, whose profile is mesmerizing. I recently saw a screening of the 1965 Polanski film Repulsion and she was in attendance--she's still gorgeous. The DVD was just released on Criterion, and I bought it with good reason since I know I'll be watching this movie several times over and make new observations each time.

The Best: Deneuve, the center of the film, whose seemingly vacant stares evoke so much more to the viewer than to her clueless husband.

Fact: "Belle de jour" is a day lily in French, a flower that blooms only by day, as Séverine is available only during the afternoons. "Belle de jour" is also a sort of pun, as it reminds us of "belle de nuit," an euphemism for prostitute.

Rating: ********* (9 out of 10)

Beginners (2011)

Dir: Mike Mills

Writer: Mike Mills

Starring: Ewan McGregor, Christopher Plummer, Mélanie Laurent

I enjoy the quietness of this film. The premise of the movie is simple: a father (Plummer) tells his son (McGregor) that he is gay after his wife dies. He's been gay his entire life. The son not only deals with learning this, but the fact that his father is sick as well. There's a bit of a love story in there, too. In this day and age where films with this kind of plot are usually filmed with the intention of reaping all the manipulative sentimentality they can, Beginners feels genuine and quiet and unassuming. It guides you through a personal story with an intimate lense.

Director Mike Mills accomplishes much with his simplicity. Aparently based on his own life and family, the movie makes my heart stir without making me squirm. Here's just a guy trying to figure it out; 'it' being life, and the guy being just like everyone else. It's sad and poignant but moving in a non-corny way (that says a lot if you know that there is a dog that McGregor talks to through the movie). It was my favorite film of 2011.

Christopher Plummer will surely go on to win an Academy Award for this; nobody else in the category holds a flame to his deep performance. I just wish it was recognized more for the great movie it is--it's just too quietly not tooting it's own horn, but for that I treasure this movie.

The Best: Christopher Plummer as Hal. I can't say more about his wonderful, admirable, and yes--quiet--performance.

Fact: Director Mills is married to writer/director/actor Miranda July in real life. Last summer she also released a film called The Future, which had a cat named Paw Paw that spoke as narrator. They both released movies with verbal pets! Beginners featured the dog Arthur's dialogue in subtitles.

Rating: ********** (10 out of 10)