INCEPTION

Written and Directed by Christopher Nolan

Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ellen Page, Marion Cotillard and Michael Caine

Eames: If we’re going to perform inception, then we’re going to need imagination.

I knew there was a good reason I fought so hard every night to hold on to my conscious mind and not let my unconscious mind take over.  I’ve got to make sure no pesky extractors get in there to steal my highly sought after secret thoughts.  More importantly, I’ve got to make sure that nobody gets in there and plants an idea that I would go on to believe is entirely my own upon waking up.  This latter assault is called INCEPTION and the extremely dangerous process involved in making it happen is the premise for Christopher Nolan’s film of the same name.  Nolan’s skill as a director gives him the tools to delve deep into the viewer’s mind but after waking up from the dreamlike state INCEPTION creates so delicately, it doesn’t feel like he left anything in there to hold on to.

In order for Nolan to sell INCEPTION, he has a lot of ideas to implant in the audience from the very beginning.  Leonardo Dicaprio and Joseph Gordon-Levitt play professional dreamers, men who, when connected to a fancy box that puts you right to sleep at the push of a button (where can I get this box?!), enter other people’s subconscious minds.  It’s way more complicated than that and INCEPTION does its best to ensure the audience understands its complex ideas.  To begin with, Nolan starts the action with Dicaprio and Gordon-Levitt in the middle of a mission.  This way we get to see first hand what their alternate reality is and it conveniently allows for explanation between characters indirectly aimed to help the audience situate itself.  Comparisons to THE MATRIX are not shocking to me.  Like that film, INCEPTION is a visual marvel that requires a lot of contextualization to get lost in.  And again, like that film, explanatory scenes that stop the action cold are necessary to keep everyone following.  THE MATRIX does one thing differently though – it makes it all about us at the same time so once we do get lost, we have just as much to lose.

Once everyone is on the same page, which takes almost half the film to accomplish, the real mission begins.  Inception, the concept of that is, is thought to be purely theoretical but Dicaprio is determined to make it a reality.  Dicaprio’s team, also including Ellen Page, Ken Wantanabe and the deliciously smarmy Tom Hardy, has been contracted to go deep into the mind of Robert Fischer Jr. (Cillian Murphy), the heir to an internationally successful corporation.  Once they get deep enough, they must implant an idea that will trigger Fischer to want to dissolve the company when he wakes up.  As the leader of the team, and the dreamer who has been doing this the longest, Dicaprio’s personal issues, primarily the ones involving his secretive past with his wife, Mal (Marion Cotillard), keep creeping into the collectively shared dreams.  Here, dreams and memories get easily confused and threaten to bring everything toppling down.  The corporate espionage angle though keeps the audience at a safe distance when we should all be able to draw upon the shared experience of getting lost in dreams.

Visually, there is no question that INCEPTION will have you dreaming of the fantastical sets and effects long after you’ve seen it.  As Nolan takes us deeper into dreams within dreams, he has total control over all the layers he has designed so deliberately one on top of the other.  He wows us with everything going on around us and grips us by making the success of the mission dependent upon a multitude of factors that must align perfectly within a very small window of time.  Considering how much work is involved in getting this deep and keeping all these layers balanced though, it seems odd that Nolan doesn’t appear to have any grander a purpose to achieving this feat other than proving he could.  In order for inception to work, to ensure the idea really sticks, the subject has to believe that the idea came from himself, like true inspiration.  Nolan burrows into the extreme depths of his subjects but leaves little to nothing insightful behind in the viewer to inspire us when we all wake up.

It's still a good time, mind you ...

Black Sheep TIFF Review: WHIP IT

So, Drew Barrymore is a director now. Interesting. She’s a likeable Hollywood type. I don’t think she’s a terribly good actress but definitely likeable and clearly has a good handle on the producing game. I guess directing is the natural next step and her debut, WHIP IT, is appropriately rough when it’s supposed to be and surprisingly smooth when it needs to be. In fact, it pretty much embodied what I’ve always imagined the spirit of Drew Barrymore to be.

At one point early on in the story, Bliss (Ellen Page) is waiting on tables in Bodeen, Texas – otherwise known as the middle of nowhere. The cool kids from school ask her if she is supposed to be alternative now and Bliss replies, “Alternative to what?” For a while, WHIP IT feels as though Barrymore is trying her hardest to be the far end alternative to anything she can be and she’s taking Page with her. Bliss wants out of her nothing town, out of the beauty pageants her mom (Marcia Gay Harden) has been forcing on her for years and when she discovers roller derby in Austin, she thinks she’s figured it all out. She joins a pack of roller girls – Barrymore herself, Kristen Wiig, Zoe Bell (that awesome stunt chick from Quentin Tarantino’s DEATHPROOF) – to take on the baddest roller girl in town, Juliette Lewis, who is fierce but looks as though she hasn’t taken off her Misfits makeup in 20 years. They get down and dirty on the track and before long, Bliss’s life is just as broken and bruised as her thighs.

As different a story as Barrymore decided to tell her first time out, she seemed to be tripping over her own conventional history but she’s got a secret weapon that I never saw coming. She lets Bliss hang herself (figuratively) without ever letting her or us see it coming. This makes WHIP IT humble and it helped me see that when little Ellen Page first puts her skates on to fumble down her street, it wasn’t just Bliss learning to walk all over again toward her destiny; Barrymore is having just a wobbly time behind the camera. But again, like Bliss, she might just be real good at it someday.

DVD Review: THE TRACEY FRAGMENTS

Written by Maureen Medved
Directed by Bruce McDonald
Starring Ellen Page, Max McCabe-Lokos and Slim Twig


We all know it’s difficult to be a teenage girl. Only, there’s adolescent angst and confusion caused by raging hormones and a developing mind and then there’s Tracey Berkowitz (Ellen Page pre-Juno explosion). On many levels, Tracey is like all the other girls. She’s just the average teenage girl who hates herself. Between torment from her peers in school, a hotheaded father, a mentally unstable mother and a missing brother, it is not surprising that Tracey’s focus is so, well, fragmented. And while Tracey’s plight makes THE TRACEY FRAGMENTS a compelling tale in its own right, it is the visceral split-screen aesthetic and raw performance by Page as Tracey that create for the viewer a fundamental need to see these countless fragments be pieced together into some manner of integrated whole.


It’s difficult to say whether the editing style makes the film or saves the film. It is so downtrodden that if it were to play out straight, it might be too tedious to bear. The harrowing subject matter is also difficult to maintain as believable outside Page’s inner circle. The supporting cast is often awkward & amateurish but the style manages to hide that as much as possible. Still, Tracey’s fragments make for an innovative cinematic language that stretches into the DVD special features as well. Even the “Behind the Scenes” featurette is told in the same visual style. Aside from that and a monotonous picture gallery, the DVD also features a segment entitled “Tracey: Re-Fragmented”. At the time of the film’s release, the raw footage was made available online for download and the five best re-cut shorts have been included on the DVD as part of a contest. The results are mixed but the concept is pioneering.

The same can be said for the film itself.

FILM & DVD

THE TRACEY FRAGMENTS

An interview with director, Bruce McDonald


We all know it’s difficult to be a teenage girl. Only, there’s adolescent angst and confusion caused by raging hormones and a developing mind and then there’s Tracey Berkowitz. On many levels, Tracey is like all the other girls. She’s waiting for her body to develop; she longs for the new boy in school’s affections; and she transforms her life into a fantastical movie star existence in her head when the dull monotony of reality gets to be too much. That said, the life she is fantasizing an escape from is far from perfect; it’s far from acceptable even. Between torment from her peers in school, a hotheaded father, a mentally unstable mother and a missing brother, it is not surprising that Tracey’s focus is so, well, fragmented. And while Tracey’s plight makes THE TRACEY FRAGMENTS a compelling tale in its own right, it is the visceral split-screen aesthetic and raw performance by Ellen Page as Tracey that create for the viewer a fundamental need to see these countless fragments be pieced together into some manner of integrated whole.

THE TRACEY FRAGMENTS is based on a novel by Canadian playwright, Maureen Medved. The novel too is a disjointed experience that alternates between first and third person narration as Tracey rides a city bus in the middle of a blizzard, wearing nothing but a shower curtain. One day a few years back, a colleague passed the book on to Canadian film director, Bruce McDonald (HARD CORE LOGO). The mouthiness of the main character made him feel this could be a good film alternative to the kind of perfect pop princess imagery that is so commonly tossed around today. McDonald and Medved were soon in touch and realized they had similar friends in common, a similar love of film as well as similar thoughts about Tracey Berkowitz. Medved would go on to write the screenplay as per McDonald’s theory that if you wrote the book, you should get first crack at the screenplay, if you so desire.

With the screenplay completed, the first of three vital aspects to this production was in place. The two remaining elements to secure were editors talented enough to fragment Tracey’s life and the perfect woman to play Tracey herself. The role ultimately went to Canadian actress Ellen Page before most people knew who she was. McDonald sat down with me hours before THE TRACEY FRAGMENTS was to screen at the Montreal Nouveau Cinema Festival to talk about the film’s journey through the festival circuit, the innovative ways they’ve found to promote the film and how he is basically one of the least important stars of this film.


Joseph Belanger: I was telling someone that I was interviewing you this weekend and they asked if I had seen the film yet. At the time, I hadn’t and told them such. They made a face and said it should be an interesting interview then. Why do you think she said that?

Bruce McDonald: It’s been funny to see audiences engage in their own debate with each other on the film. It’s been pretty hilarious actually. Some people are one way on it and some people are another.

JB: I’m sure you’ve had lots of chances to get reactions as you’re reaching the end of your festival run with the film. It’s playing the American Film Institute next month and being released nationally in Canada. Have you been touring with the film?

BM: Pretty much. We started in Berlin in February and we went to Istanbul, then here. If I want, we can still go to Cuba, London, Australia. We could tour forever really. I wanted to go to as many of these places as I could because I wanted to do what I could and say, “Hey, check this out. It’s a crazy, cooky, fucking weird movie”

JB: With the film going national though now, it must be a different experience to not be there to hold its hand, so to speak, to let the film speak for itself.

BM: Part of going on the tour was a general curiosity. We had been working on this for a year almost. I just wanted to see it on the screen with an audience and get a vibe from people. The editors came too. They’ve come to like three or four festivals. Often it’s just the director and maybe a star actor that comes to festivals. But everyone was in Berlin. Not only the three editors but the colorists, the DOP; they were all curious and they wanted to see it with an audience. They were just like what the fuck, how is this going to play?

JB: It’s nice to hear that all these other people, like the editors and the colorists, are all getting to go these screenings. It’s not like they’re not important roles on other films but in this case …

BM: No, they’re the stars, really. They’re the stars of this movie. I wish they could be with me on all of these interviews and talk to the interviews because the stars of this movie are Ellen Page and the editors. They didn’t invent this look from scratch exactly but they didn’t have a guidebook. I would just tell to go all the way and they would be like, what does that mean? Just do it. You figure it out. I don’t know how to work Final Cut Pro. I’m proud of those guys.


JB: And how did you decide to tell the story visually this way? Was it in the initial screenplay?

BM: The screenplay was done years before we shot it. At the time it was written, I didn’t have any split-screen stuff in mind. It was just when we got things together and it looked like the movie was going to be made that I told the investors this was how I was going to do this. The reason why really is because it’s like a kitchen sink movie. It’s about poor people, bad side of town, dark, not tons of laughs, a lot of grimness in it. I thought the split screen would bring an airiness to it and a pop-art feel so that it didn’t end up so relentlessly, fucking dreary. Y’know, it’s snowing; it’s night; it’s Canada; it’s some weird town somewhere. Why do I want to be here? It was a way to embrace that and not be afraid of the dark but at the same time be entertained. Plus, the title kind of suggests it and we just went with that. It’s like a portrait or a painting or something in this non-linear way. It’s like how does the brain think? Or how does memory work? What does memory really look like? Does memory look like BLADE RUNNER? It could but many things are going on all at once. It’s pretty crazy up there, as we all know. We tried to channel memory and desire, that full-on input/output you have when you’re that age. It’s kind of chaotic and fucking crazy.

JB: On THE TRACEY FRAGMENTS website (www.thetraceyfragments.com), there is a section you can link to called “Re-Fragmented”. If I understand it correctly, you can essentially download all the raw footage and recut the film any which way you like.

BM: It’s basically like, here’s the fourteen days of rushes. The reason for that is the design and the shooting of the movie was a great experiment and we’ve felt rewarded by the screenings and the curiosity and the generosity so we thought might just carry on that experiment. See what happens when you put it into this cyber-world. Let people just fucking play with it. There’s a contest. We’ll put some of the stuff people send us on the DVD when it comes out. People can cut a rock video for their band or what you think a cool trailer for THE TRACEY FRAGMENTS would be. Ideally, cut a full length feature film but don’t use the split screen. It’s like THE TRACEY FRAGMENTS unplugged, the acoustic version.

JB: You mentioned earlier that there are two stars of your film, the editors and Ellen Page. I had seen Page before in HARD CANDY. (This interview was conducted months before Page rose to fame with her Oscar nominated role in JUNO.) She clearly has a disturbing ease playing troubled, angry outcasts. What was your involvement in coaxing this performance out of her or does it all just come naturally to her?

BM: It comes out. Literally, it’s like turning on a switch. People think, what do you to direct that? You talk about a common ground, a couple of reference points, share a couple of mix tapes so you know where you’re going. It’s not campy or funny or ironic; it’s a little dark, heart-beating romance. My job as a director is just to make a safe place. She really surprised me. I’m a pretty straight guy. I’m not a big fan of attempted rape or anything. I just want to get through scenes like that as quickly as possible. But she said it didn’t bother her. She says she kind of likes it because she gets to go to the dark places without real life consequences. That’s what being an actor is all about. As a young woman and young actress, everything is just on and she’s ready to go there. She’s smart enough and grounded enough to know that it’s pretend. A lot of other people just get lost in it. She’s courageous and intelligent and refreshing. A lot of people want to be actors but their motivation is to be famous, to be a celebrity. With Ellen, her aim is true.


JB: Last but not least, let’s talk about Tracey Berkowitz. She’s a self-professed “normal” girl. To some extent, I would say she’s very much right. She’s an angst-ridden teenager, angry and not sure why. On the other hand, she’s a girl who has quite a bit on her plate, much more so than many other girls her age. Maybe you can clear things up for me. Who do you think Tracey Berkowitz is?

BM: The short answer to that is I always tried to think of Patti Smith at 15. Part of her is a female version of Holden Caulfield from “Catcher in the Rye”, one of the modern day teenage angst classics. So, she’s a weird cross between the two then, somebody who is trying to channel some interesting things. A fifteen-year-old girls who wants to be Patti Smith is much more interesting than a fifteen-year-old girl who wants to be Britney Spears. The teenage girl, I don’t know if it’s always been this way, but is weirdly important part of our culture, like it’s somehow this touchstone of glamour, innocence, horror, exploitation, pop music, like this foundational cornerstone. Other people could probably talk about it better than I do but just this ear to the idea of what is the model? I don’t think the model anymore is Joan of Arc. The model is that belly button-showing pop tart. I just thought why not put Tracey Berkowitz out there as this alternative touchstone. That wasn’t the reason to do the movie but I just wanted to go left instead of the right way.

JB: I can’t imagine it would have been a successful film if you had gone any other way.

SMART PEOPLE

Written by Mark Poirier
Directed by Noam Murro
Starring Dennis Quaid, Sarah Jessica Parker, Thomas Haden Church and Ellen Page


Vanessa Wetherhold: What is it like being stupid?
Brooke: It’s like sitting alone at lunch every day.

For a movie about supposedly clever individuals, SMART PEOPLE isn’t very smart. In fact, it shows its lack of intelligence almost instantly when it opens with a sequence of scenes that establish what a self-involved, miserable jackass college professor, Lawrence Wetherhold (Dennis Quaid) is, with the subtlety of an international fireworks competition. He can’t remember the names of his students. He can’t be bothered to honour his office hours. He doesn’t even have the time of day for his adopted brother, Chuck (Thomas Haden Church). He is coarse with everyone he meets and shows disdain for everything life throws at him. First time filmmaker, Noam Munro, then expects us to dig deep into our already put off hearts and find some sympathy for this devil of a man. Barely five minutes have passed and you know exactly what to expect. Lawrence will meet a girl before long and she will show him that as smart as he thinks he is, he’s got oh so much more to learn about living and loving life. Seeing as how the premise is overdone and the man in desperate need of change is completely unlikable, I’m thinking they might have wanted to put a little more thought into this one before declaring it smart.


And find a woman, Lawrence does. After suffering a concussion from falling off a fence, Lawrence is reconnected with a former student of his that went on to become an E.R. doctor, Janet Hartigan (Sarah Jessica Parker). Reconnected is not exactly the right choice of words as he does not remember her whatsoever. He is not the least bit kind to her, just like when he was her professor way back when, and all of their interactions are awkward and unsatisfying. Yet, she shows no hesitation when he asks her out for a “face to face” (that’s smart people talk for “date”). First time screenwriter, Mark Poirier, might want to look up the meaning of “motivation”. What incentive is there for this successful doctor to go out with this pompous man? While we’re on the subject, why does a man so content in his misery suddenly make a move toward potential happiness? Smart, well-rounded characters make their own decisions and do things for a reason. These types of script progressions make sense and create meaning instead of simply serving the plot. In this scenario, we are left to watch a relationship grow out of nothing and therefore have no stake in its success.


As if Lawrence’s obnoxious presence weren’t enough, he seems to have passed on all of his “better” traits to his teenage daughter, Vanessa (Ellen Page). Vanessa excels at everything she does and does not for a moment let life get in the way of these successes. Not surprisingly, she has no life outside of this. Having lost her mother an undetermined time ago, she desperately craves her father’s approval and attention. Thankfully for her, her uncle, Chuck, can come to her emotional rescue just like Dr. Hartigan is doing for her Dad. Thankfully for us, all the actors involved are talented enough to bring as much depth as is physically possible to these thin characters. Now we have a detestable father-daughter duo and two saviors. What we don’t have is a reason to care. While it makes sense for Vanessa to emulate her role model, we still have no idea why Lawrence is so unhappy. Seeing as how he can’t seem to part with his dead wife’s clothes, one could infer that he gave up after her death but he was apparently just as loathsome in his earlier teaching days. The story seems to be pushing him to get over something but doesn’t bother establishing what it is he has to get over.


SMART PEOPLE seems to imply that people who are smart do not know how to be happy, are completely selfish individuals and essentially think that they are better than everyone else. Not only have these inferences been made countless times but they are also the worst kinds of clichés, the kinds that are based on ignorance and untruths. Murro and Poirier jump in and out of moments in these characters’ experiences without explaining how they got there, why we should care or where they’ll go when it is all done. All they seem concerned with is making their hackneyed point and using as many big words as possible in the process. In the end, SMART PEOPLE is just plain dumb.

THE 2008 MOUTON D'OR AWARDS

“In many ways, the work of a critic is easy. We risk very little, yet enjoy a position over those who offer up their work and their selves to our judgment. We thrive on negative criticism, which is fun to write and to read. But the bitter truth we critics must face, is that in the grand scheme of things, the average piece of junk is more meaningful than our criticism designating it so.” These are the words of Anton Ego, RATATOUILLE’s imposing food critic who has grown sour after years of being fed what he deems to be mediocrity. This, however, is a humbled moment that gives birth to a newly invigorated soul. Ego did not become a critic in order to criticize but rather to feast upon that which he appreciates the most. His expectations are just a little high.

This scene actually makes me cry. Watching films with a critical eye certainly skews the viewing but, like Ego, I am merely waiting to recapture the joy and warmth that movies have brought to my heart since I was a boy. Peel my expectations and disappointments away and you will not find a critic but rather a film enthusiast.

I am also an awards geek.
Welcome to the 2008 Mouton d’Or Awards.

BEST POPCORN FLICK

I like to be entertained just like anybody. As much as I enjoy getting lost in thought and opening my mind up to perspectives unlike my own, I also enjoy shutting off and leaving my worries alone for a little while. What makes all the nominees in the category of BEST POPCORN FLICK special is that they all successfully entertain in big, bright fashion but also manage to tickle your brain at the same time. Paul Greengrass’s schizophrenic THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM is non-stop action, speed and intelligence, cut together in a style that gets your heart pumping faster than perhaps it should. THE DARJEELING LIMITED is Wes Anderson’s unfortunately overlooked masterpiece. It is colorful, insightful and hilarious. Unlike most of his previous work, it is also touching and real. As the 2nd half of the GRINDHOUSE double feature, DEATH PROOF feels long but as its own separate feature, the great modern visionary, Quentin Tarantino, offers another uniquely visceral experience. Fast cars, hot chicks, smack talk galore and edge of your seat car chases propel this potentially ridiculous premise into the fast lane. Buckle up! I have never seen New York City look so haunting as it does in I AM LEGEND. Call it a vampire flick or a Will Smith puff piece but you cannot deny the odd beauty of deer hopping through grass ridden New York streets and cutting through halted traffic. Smith carries this film on his well built shoulders and never shows signs of tiring. All this said, it is no secret that I gave my heart away this last year to one very endearing and very inspirational rat. Little chef Remy finds his fate when he isn’t looking and learns to accept and embrace who he truly is. The script is calculated while still unexpected; the camera work, scattered while still controlled. The results are a delectable delight. This year’s Mouton d’Or for Best Popcorn Flick goes to Brad Bird's RATATOUILLE.


BEST LITTLER MOVIE

Not everyone gets to make a film with a gigantic conglomerate backing them up. The category of BEST LITTLER MOVIE is given to the film that shows genuine intention, artistry and heart. Todd Haynes’s Bob Dylan tribute, I’M NOT THERE, is ambitious in scope and abundantly original. Despite its many detractors, Haynes continues to stay true to his vision and asserts himself further as one of the great contemporary American filmmakers. JUNO is highly watchable. Repeat viewings only draw you closer to these wonderful, relatable characters. Director Jason Reitman’s 2nd feature has opened his career wide open and congratulations are due to him and screenwriter, Diablo Cody, for giving the world a young heroine with no shame and a sense of self not found in most teenage screen representations. LARS AND THE REAL GIRL is a lonely experience. While that may repel some, those who are brave and fortunate enough to find themselves observing Lars as he embarks on a real relationship with a not so real partner will be given the opportunity to face their own fears about what being alone truly means. WAITRESS is just scrumptious. Every time it feels like the film might go off in a direction that would render it totally bland, it doesn’t. The late Adrienne Shelley’s choices as both director and writer are sharp and revealing for all those who know what it means to be going down a path that you never thought would be your own and without any control over that direction. Love and indie are not often words used in the same sentence. Indie and musical? Even less so. Yet here we are with a small Irish film about two people who find each other and themselves in song and the harmony they create together by simply putting their voices out there. For grounding the musical in a reality that is not tragic but progressive and for allowing love to be omnipresent without carrying anyone away, the Mouton d’Or for Best Little Movie goes to John Carney’s ONCE.


THE WORSE MOVIE I SAW ALL YEAR

Here’s where it gets a little nasty. THE WORST MOVIE I SAW ALL YEAR goes to, well, the worst movie I saw all year. I see a lot of movies but I can’t see everything so how do I gage what to nominate here and what should win? Essentially, the winner is the film that angered me more than any other. This generally happens when potential is there, when you can smell it all around you but you are instead forced to watch it be squandered away or when the film is just plain dumb. ALPHA DOG falls into the latter category. My feelings about this film are best expressed by remembering the scene where Ben Foster takes a dump on his nemesis’s living room floor. Imagine the living room floor as this film and the scene becomes wonderfully apropos. About five minutes in to BLACK SNAKE MOAN, Christina Ricci is seen convulsing in the grass. She’s got the itch; that’s what they call nymphomania. The biblical implications of a girl being led back to salvation and pulp aesthetic cannot save this film from its own ridiculous staging. Oh, and Samuel L. Jackson should never be allowed to sing on film again. Canadian darling, Denys Arcand, came back this year with L’AGE DES TENEBRES (DAYS OF DARKNESS). His Oscar for LES INVASIONS BARBARES (BARBARIAN INVASIONS) has clearly gone to his head as he now seems to see himself as a prophet sent to warn us of the consequences of a banal life based on lies and materialism. Thanks Denys, but I think we all had that one figured out already. I don’t know why I expected more from TRANSFORMERS. I guess I wanted to be a kid again but this clunky, confusing disaster (due props for its special effects design work though) was made for today’s kids and I don’t get why they seem to enjoy being condescended to. Still, no film made me angrier this year than this particularly pointless musical. Those who loved it appreciated its artistic innovation. Art without purpose though might as well be commerce and this film took the genius music of The Beatles and rendered the words that have inspired millions meaningless and hollow. For this unforgivable offence, the Mouton d’Or for The Worst Film I Saw All Year goes to Julie Taymor’s ACROSS THE UNIVERSE.


THE TREVOR ADAMS ANIMATED FEATURE AWARD

Thanks to my friend, Trevor, animated film excites me in ways it never did before. This is why the award is named in his honour and the films that find themselves in this category are honoured for both their delicate craftsmanship and their ability to outshine the countless live action films that don’t measure up. As the technology in the field makes new worlds of animation possible to explore, the nominees this year are a mixed bag of 2D and 3D animation. Going the traditional 2D route to tell an entirely untraditional story, PERSEPOLIS is mostly black and white and magical. While many strive to create animated features aimed at kids as enjoyable for both adults and children, Marjane Sartrapi tells the painfully adult story of her life growing up in Iran during the Islamic revolution in an unapologetically mature manner. It is a true expression of artistry and brave use of the medium. There is nothing mature about THE SIMPSONS MOVIE. The numerous creative minds behind this first feature length offering made so many people laugh this year and they did so by not only remaining true to their roots and their fans but they brought new sides to characters we have allowed in our living rooms for nearly twenty years. It may not be a work of genius but it is a solid reminder why the Simpsons are the quintessential nuclear family. Meanwhile, one animated feature achieved the implausible by getting audiences around the world to let rats into the kitchen. The good people at Pixar are the leaders in the industry but they never take their position or the story behind each of their ideas for granted. In fact, they take very good care of it. The recipe they used for their latest reveals new flavours with every serving, including inspiration, perspective and philosophy about how one’s true nature factors into one’s destiny. And their presentation is always impeccable. This year’s Mouton d’Or for The Trevor Adams Animated Feature Award goes to RATATOUILLE.


BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

There are new technical awards this year, including this category for BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY. The results here surprised even myself. Watching ATONEMENT means weaving in and around a beautiful mansion maze with dimly lit corners that reveal shocking secrets. It all culminates in an unmatched 4½-minute continuous shot recreating the evacuation of British soldiers on the beach of Dunkirk that choreographed to perfection. NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN makes desolate and alone into something picturesque. Sweeping landscapes or violence in cramped hotel rooms are equally invigorating. LE SCAPHANDRE ET LE PAPILLON blurs its edges and straps the viewer down to a hospitable bed with no possibility of escape. Feeling trapped has never been so artistically liberating. THERE WILL BE BLOOD takes the stillness of the desert and frames its beauty into a feeling of what it must have been like to be right there. One film though above all these wonderful works seems determined to elevate cinematographic possibilities with every shot. The film itself is not amazing but you cannot look away from its stunning style – from fields of endless wheat flowing in the wind to a screen of nothing but black suddenly interrupted by the light at the head of the train turning the corner and shining through a densely populated forest. Improving his odds by being nominated twice in this category, the Mouton d’Or for Best Cinematography goes to Roger Deakins for THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES BY THE COWARD ROBERT FORD.


BEST ORIGINAL MUSIC

In the category of Best Original Music, all five nominated films are made better by their musical accompaniment. In INTO THE WILD, I was mostly uninterested in the majority of the film but became interested each time Eddie Vedder’s light acoustic guitar filled out the frame and lent depth to the often pretty pictures. THERE WILL BE BLOOD would have been an entirely different film if it weren’t for Jonny Greenwood’s haunting and disturbingly intense score. His music made everything that much more eerie and urgent. Michael Giacchino’s score for RATATOUILLE is whimsical and wind-instrument heavy. He helped put the bounce in Remy’s scamper. The tapping of the typewriter in Dario Marionelli’s score for ATONEMENT is commanding and drives the film forward with a march and romantic swell. It is the lyricism, the melodic lull and the harmonized passion of this Best Littler Movie winner that takes the prize though. Singing brings people together in this movie and the music lives on as the two leads and composers, Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova continue to tour the world with the moving music of this film. The Mouton d’Or for Best Original Music goes to ONCE.


BEST EDITING

Chop, chop, chop. Editing sets the pace of a film and should not be noticed but certainly should be celebrated. ATONEMENT plays with time and expectation. Glimpses of moments to come are spliced in and told out of sequence with their true account and significance only revealed when the right time has arrived. NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN cuts back and forth between cat and mouse and changes the roles whenever it feels like. What is cut out in this film is often the most telling. LE SCAPHANDRE ET LE PAPILLON manages to avoid cliché despite cutting back and forth between the past and the present. Though we go to the past, we are always present. ZODIAC is epic in length and while some feel the film is long, the manner in which it is edited is done for exactly this effect so that you too can feel the exhaustion of running after a killer for years without result. The winner in this category though cuts when he feels like it instead of when it is expected. A fight scene in a tiny bathroom reaches dizzying heights of force and the viewer is never allowed to sit still to situate where in the world the film is now because the editing is relentless. The Mouton d’Or for Best Editing goes to Christopher Rouse for THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM.


BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

It’s performance time. As the coward, Robert Ford in THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES BY THE COWARD ROBERT FORD, Casey Affleck is an awkward, uncomfortable star-struck boy playing in a man’s game. He embodies an inner struggle to prove himself to the idol he has emulated for years and the only way to do that is to conquer him. In MICHAEL CLAYTON, Tom Wilkinson may be crazy but it’s just the price he has to pay for his genius. The conflict between his soul and the corruption he perpetuates in his career as a lawyer has him completely unhinged and his conviction to make things right is the only thing that keeps balanced. In Wilkinson’s shoes, he is always teetering. Hal Holbrook is a welcome sight in the lengthy INTO THE WILD. This lonesome older man only appears in the later parts of the film but he leaves the most lasting imprint. His is a life that is nearing its end and yet the hope he feels still continues to overshadow a lifetime of regrets. In CHARLIE WILSON’S WAR, Philip Seymour Hoffman is one pushy bastard. He is curt, crafty and calculated. Hoffman looks like he could blow up any time he graces the screen but yet good intentions and ideals can always been seen underneath his rough exterior. It only takes five minutes to spot the winner in this category. The evil in his eyes as he stares up at the ceiling while strangling a naïve policeman is so blank and cold. There is no meaning to his madness. He just exists it. Anton Chigurh is a new face of evil, an instantly iconic character brought to life in a triumphantly unflinching performance. The Mouton d’Or for Best Supporting Actor goes to JAVIER BARDEM in NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN.


BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
It’s the ladies’ turn now. In MICHAEL CLAYTON, Tilda Swinton is a power player in way over her head. Her ambition has led her to heights she perhaps never imagined but her nervous nature is constantly at odds with her position and status. It is a pleasure to watch her sweat. In GONE, BABY, GONE, Amy Ryan takes the character of a mother who has had her child taken from her and turns one of the most sympathetic archetypes in narrative history into someone you want punch and shake. Yet somehow, you still just want to see her get it together all the while. Saoirse Ronan is an enormous force in a tiny frame in ATONEMENT. As Briony Tallis, she is brilliant and talented but needs constant reassurance to build her fragile confidence. When she tells her infamous lie, you can tell she knows what she’s doing is wrong but has no concept of just how wrong that is. Jennifer Jason Leigh is no stranger to fragile characters that are put upon by those who surround them. In MARGOT AT THE WEDDING, she brings new layers to the troubled soul she knows so well. Her character lives the influence of her history and tries to please everyone while struggling with the knowledge that she will never reach her future until she learns to please herself. The winner in this category is an unorthodox casting choice for the character she played and yet she gives the most natural performance of the entire cast. She shares the duties of playing Bob Dylan with five other male actors and despite her sex, or perhaps because of it, gives the performance that best captures the poet. She is fidgety, angry, mouthy and still breaks just like a woman. The Mouton d’Or for Best Supporting Actress goes to CATE BLANCHETT in I’M NOT THERE.


BEST ACTOR

The category of Best Actor was immensely competitive this year. Narrowing it down to five performances was extremely difficult and it meant some very fine performances could not be recognized. I guess that means if you’re here, you damn well deserve it. In addition to his fantastic turn in AMERICAN GANGSTER, Josh Brolin has an incredible return this year. In NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN, he doesn’t say very much. The man doesn’t remember that his own mother has died but the moves he makes to avoid being caught by the hunter who is after him are nothing short of inspired. His focus never fails and neither does his performance. Ryan Gosling won this category last year for his turn as a drug addict high school teacher in HALF NELSON. He returns this year as a man so lonely, he invents a personality for an anatomically correct plastic doll in LARS AND THE REAL GIRL. Being a good boyfriend to her is a lot easier than dealing with real people for the man who seems to fear the day light and any interaction with a real person. He needs closeness but that is what he fears the most. Tommy Lee Jones cannot find his son in IN VALLEY OF ELAH. His calm, polite nature is his defense against the bizarre new world of violence and technology. On this level, he shares a lot in common with the character he plays in NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN. Only here, his acceptance of the reality he now lives in is quiet on the outside but tumultuous on the inside and never the two shall meet. If this were a different year and the competition were different, Viggo Mortensen would be the winner in this category for his performance as a chauffeur to the Russian mob in EASTERN PROMISES. His accent and ferocity are commanding and impressive and his vulnerability and sensitivity expose his monster front to reveal the human underneath. Still, nothing can compare to the embodiment and complete transformation of this year’s winner. One has come to expect these kinds of revelatory performances from this choosy actor but his capacity to create such detailed characters from words on a page is always surprising. As Daniel Plainview, he is ambitious, conniving and downright frightening. He is the original entrepreneur and the prototype for the watered down versions of sharks swimming in business today. The Mouton d’Or for Best Actor goes to DANIEL DAY-LEWIS in THERE WILL BE BLOOD.


BEST ACTRESS

The Best Actress category was not difficult to narrow down but was difficult to select a winner for. Julie Christie will likely go on to win the Oscar for her performance as a resident with Alzheimer’s adapting to her new home in AWAY FROM HER. She is delicately confused and traces of her former self sneak through at random moments. Considering we never met her before the onset of the diseases, it’s pretty impressive that we would even recognize her. As the title character in MARGOT AT THE WEDDING, Nicole Kidman is a complete mess. Because she is successful, she thinks that she is better than the rest of her family but she may just be the most neurotic of the bunch. Watching her fall apart is at times enjoyable as she is not terribly likable but she still gets us to feel very sorry for her. Marion Cotillard saves LA VIE EN ROSE from being a fairly straightforward biopic. As French singer, Edith Piaf, she is radiant, fragile and exuberant. Her moods are erratic and the changes are frequent. Her descent from fame to disease is tragic but Cotillard’s performance is transcendent. Angelina Jolie should have been nominated for the Oscar for her role as Mariane Pearl, wife of kidnapped and murdered American journalist, Daniel Pearl, in A MIGHTY HEART. Her performance is so nuanced and contained. She is constantly trying to keep it together that by the time she lets it all out, you want to scream and shout with her in support. The winner in this category has done something remarkable. Her performance of a headstrong pregnant teenager has the potential to become an iconic companion to Holden Caulfield. She is smart and determined, witty and winning but also frightened and searching for more truths. Her command of her own self and her assertiveness that spites social norms is an inspiration to a group of people who have never seen themselves on screen like this before. The Mouton d’Or for Best Actress goes to ELLEN PAGE in JUNO.


BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

Aw, the writers. Before you turned Hollywood on its back this year with your impactful strike, you wrote some lovely screenplays and here are the best of the bunch. The tone in ATONEMENT is achingly romantic. The manner in which Christopher Hampton’s story of unrequited love and lecherous regret unfolds inspires sympathy without utilizing sap to get there. The balance between time and space gives way to an ending I did not see coming that made more sense than anything I would have imagined. LE SCAPHANDRE ET LE PAPILLON is a hollowing experience that replenishes itself before the credits close. Ronald Harwood fearlessly puts us in the mind of a bed ridden patient with locked-in syndrome and forces us to deal with the same claustrophobia and anguish his character does. The tale is telling of the endurance of the human spirit. Paul Thomas Anderson’s script for THERE WILL BE BLOOD is a bizarre and bewildering. Things are being said about commerce and oil and business and religion. So much is being said without deliberately pointing to anything in particular that it’s hard to tie it all together. Despite this, the genius gushes in every spill. Jason Vanderbilt’s ZODIAC is playfully demonic. In its earlier sequences, it bounces back and forth between the bewilderment felt by the public regarding the Zodiac killings and the gruesome killings themselves. So much time goes by without any resolution and Vanderbilt makes sure that we want the puzzle solves just as bad and before we know it, we are just as lost as the poor detectives assigned to the case. The winning script is the one that has the most fun with its audience though. The play between the hunter and the hunted keeps everyone guessing and the writers have the audacity to thwart convention by leaving out key details that would tie everything together nicely. What we’re left with is a quiet contemplation on modern horrors and unexplained human atrocities. The Mouton d’Or for Best Adapted Screenplay goes to JOEL and ETHAN COEN for NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN.


BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

Original is too light a word for the nominees in this category. Steve Zaillian’s script for EASTERN PROMISES crosses two people trying to do right by the world and themselves in starkly different fashions. Neither is selfless yet both are fighting the good fight in a world run by mobsters, allowing each of them to learn the consequences of what happens when you get too close. Nancy Oliver not only wrote a screenplay when she wrote LARS AND THE REAL GIRL; she also wrote a strong character study. Lars has lost all touch with people and yet still functions in society. In exposing this character’s palpable loneliness to the world, Oliver showed millions that they are in fact not as alone as they thought. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – rats in the kitchen is a hard sell. Through careful plotting and sharp, subtle decisions, Brad Bird manages to not only make RATATOUILLE plausible but also an exhilarating good time. By bringing us beneath the surface, Bird enlightens our minds with motivational philosophy about how the unlikeliest among us has the potential to be extraordinary. With THE SAVAGES, Tamara Jenkins makes dementia funny. That isn’t really true. What she actually does is show us how horribly taxing it is on everyone involved and teaches us that laughter must be had in order to survive it all. This year’s winner was chosen for its somehow smooth exposition of what it means to be a pregnant teenager in America today. By deciding to keep her baby and give it up for adoption, Juno MacGuff has become a poster child for both sides of the abortion issue and shown the world that having choices doesn’t automatically assume which will one will be made. It is also a love story between two young people who have found themselves in a confusing position where they have adult issues to face long before they have figured out how to feel about themselves or each other. For being honest, frank and just as hilarious as it is touching, the Mouton d’Or for Best Original Screenplay goes to DIABLO CODY for JUNO.


BEST DIRECTOR

The Best Director category was also very competitive. Many seasoned directors made masterworks while many novice directors solidified their names and talent. Paul Thomas Anderson is from the former category. THERE WILL BE BLOOD is such an incredible change of direction for the director of BOOGIE NIGHTS and MAGNOLIA. Not only is a drastic departure but it is an immensely successful one. He wanted to challenge himself and he surpassed all expectations by doing so. Todd Haynes embodies creativity in I'M NOT THERE. He is the rare director that has found a way to work within the mainstream while creating entirely unconventional work. The sheer scope of his Bob Dylan biopic is so vast that it is impossible to take everything in upon first viewing. He has not only delivered a glorious tribute to an American icon but has changed the mechanics of the biopic itself. Painter Julian Schnabel’s LE SCAPHANDRE ET LE PAPILLON is a brave work of art. It is as fearless as its protagonist needed to be in order to accomplish the feats he did while he was alive. The experience is gut wrenching but worth the insight derived. Joe Wright also cast out a wide net when trying to reel in the enormity of ATONEMENT. His control over everything is felt throughout the production and he breathes a new sensual energy into a genre that is all too often frigid. It is a duo of seasoned directors though that take this award this year. After making quirky, original features for years, these siblings have finally made their masterpiece. They did so by abandoning all of their tested practices and without altering their aesthetic to the point that their involvement is unrecognizable. It is smart, darkly humourous and its intelligence is matched only by its ferocity. This year’s Mouton d’Or for Best Director goes to JOEL and ETHAN COEN for NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN.


BEST PICTURE

You’ve made it this far and I’ve said all there is to say about each of the five nominated films for Best Picture. So, I will get right to it, not only because I'm sure you can't read anymore but I can't write anymore. Thank you for reading and your support over this last year. It has been a pleasure watching and reporting back. Here are the nominees and winner for the 2008 Mouton d’Or for Best Picture …

JUNO

Written by Diablo Cody
Directed by Jason Reitman



Juno MacGuff: I think I’m, like, in love with you.
Paulie Bleeker: You mean as friends?
Juno MacGuff: No, I mean, like for real. You’re like the coolest person I’ve ever met and you don’t even have to try, y’know.
Paulie Bleeker: I try really hard, actually.

I must be older at heart than I thought. I was instantly put off by Jason Reitman’s JUNO. Here you have this little movie about a pregnant teenager who is just trying to do the right thing by everyone and all I could think was how hard it was trying to have its own marginalized identity. A sketched doodle of the word, “autumn” appears at the top of the screen; the sounds of Barry Louis Polisar’s indie acoustic music begin to play as a comic book-like animated title sequence takes over the screen; Rainn Wilson, working as a convenience store counter clerk, says things like, “Your eggo is preggo,” and “What’s the prognosis, Fertile Myrtle?” It was as though Reitman was pulling out every trick he could think of to make sure we knew how edgy his film was. “We are indie!” it screamed like a loud teenager yammering away in the back of the theatre. Only, just like that teenager, JUNO is much deeper than it first appears and simply requires a closer look to see Reitman’s sensitive, gentle hand at work. JUNO just may be the most earnest and humble film I’ve seen all year. It’s merely hiding behind a tough exterior.


That tough exterior comes courtesy of first-time screenwriter, Diablo Cody, and is reinforced by Reitman’s strong understanding of the nuanced material. It is honest, frank and forgiving, which is a refreshing take from the usual damnation pregnant teenage girls suffer on film. Parents don’t scream and shout when they find out about their daughter’s situation; nobody forbids anyone from seeing anybody else ever again. It is not the least bit dramatic considering that exaggeration colors mostly every word uttered on screen. (Look, I can embellish too!) The non-judgmental approach allows almost every character to come from his or her own perspective and place in the story, making them much more real than they let on. We know that prospective adoptive mother, Vanessa (Jennifer Garner), is concerned with image and perception because we see her hands straightening frames and towels while waiting to receive company before we even see her face. We know that her husband, Mark (Jason Bateman), is not as enthusiastic about the adoption as his wife is because he isn’t by her side when Juno (Ellen Page) first appears at their door. These kinds of subtle visual touches act like prenatal vitamins meant to ensure that Cody’s script is born with a healthy heartbeat.


JUNO also gives birth to a new star, albeit a little bit past her due date (despite her young age of 20). Halifax native, Ellen Page, carries the majority of the film and is as complex as they come without making it seem labored (no pun intended). Past starring roles in lesser-known films like HARD CANDY and THE TRACEY FRAGMENTS were explosive and impossible to ignore only the films themselves were overlooked. Turning in another unforgettable performance in a crowd pleaser is sure to get her the accolades and recognition she deserves. Page whips out Cody’s snappy pseudo-hipster speak with fervor and confidence but gives herself away without realizing. She always plays it cool so that no one, including herself, can acknowledge how frightened she must be to be in her position. Her decision to have her baby and put it up for adoption rather than go the abortion route is brave but naïve as she has no idea how adult her decision actually is. She speaks like she has all the answers and yet has no idea what she’s talking about most of the time, but once you catch a glimmer of that fragility, anything that came off as false prior, shows itself as the front that it is.


Reitman, Cody, Page and the rest of the fantastic cast (J.K. Simmons, Alison Janney and the fascinatingly talented and gangly, Michael Cera) light JUNO afire with warmth and genuine caring. This is a movie about real people dealing with the obstacles they’re faced with rather than sitting around and whining about them. On that level, there’s nothing indie about this movie. Instead, JUNO is the perfect portrait of a young girl flung into adulthood unexpectedly. She feels prepared, realizes she isn’t, learns that she needs others and yet carries herself like she’s been the one calling the shots all along. It sure sounds awfully adult to me.