The Squid and the Whale (2005)

Noah Baumbach's The Squid and the Whale is one of the most problematic films I have seen in recent months. I am torn between the side of me that craves for this kind of humor, this dry and unique vision, and the other half that can not reconcile the film's shortfalls. The film is acidic, tender, funny, and observant. But it fails to take a position and fully examine the complicated characters it brings to the screen.

The film directly suffers from a lack of perspective. With the films ending, it becomes clear that Baumbach sides himself with the oldest child, Walt. This is a problem because Walt is the least intersting, least likable character in the film. He is, as far as I'm concerned, the least human character in a film of cold, dead people. The most interesting character, and subsequently most human character, is his younger brother Frank. If this is indeed a careful examination of divorce, Frank is the only character that responds in a manner that can provide any kind of insight. When the divorce is revealed to the children, Frank instantly asks why the divorce is happening and Walt asks what the technical arrangements will be like afterwards, specifically where the cat will live. Frank is the first character to cry, and suffers the most dramatic and negative transformation in the aftermath.

This transformation is visualized in key scenes in which Frank examines himself in the mirror. He is the only character looking inside to find solutions. Because he is young, and because the divorce is somehow out of the blue, Frank deals with it in a scary manner. He begins drinking, swearing, and chronically masturbating. As the film progresses, Frank's physical state deteriorates as well. This is directly caused by a cashew he stuffs in his nose at the beginning of the film that he does not take out. In the film's most emotional and telling scene, Frank is left behind by his father for the weekend. He proceeds to drink heavily and throws up. As he writhes on the floor, the cashew is finally released.

And it is in the films closing scenes that I have the most problems with Noah Baumbach's script. After this incredible sequence, he abandons Frank and positions himself behind Walt. Whereas Frank's hopeful future is visualized in the walnut, but more importantly in his self-examination, Frank turns towards the up and up nearly out of nowhere. He breaks down in the school psychiatrist's office after very little probing. This scene comes nearly out of nowhere. We have been given no reason to believe Walt is capable of this kind of transformation, and instead, believe him to be completely incapable of such thought. Instead, he is nothing than a puppet head spurting out things he has heard from his mother. As a result, his reconcilliation with his mother feels forced and the closing scene at the squid and the whale display contrived.

Update

Hopefully, by the end of this weekend, I will have something written up for a couple interesting movies I have seen of late: Noah Baumbach's The Squid and the Whale and Martha Coolidge's Rambling Rose. Of course, this is more of a note for me than for you dear, or any other unfortunate soul who should happen to pass by this abyss.

Lured (1947)

This film is immediately unique because it is from famed melodrama director Douglas Sirk, yet it is before his famed period. Prior to his Rock Hudson collaborations, the German director worked within the system and made a variety of different types of films. Lured is a murder mystery film starring Lucille Ball in a dramatic role and takes place in seedy London.

The film is relatively un-remarkable but it works well as a who-done-it. Sirk's visual style is lush, with beautiful set locations and "exterior" settings. Perhaps the most Sirkian aspect of the film is the use of music. At times, the soundtrack is almost overwhelming and is used at key turning points throughout the film. The movie even uses Schubert's Unfinished Symphony as a key set piece.

I was particularly impressed with Lucille Ball's performance. She is a really solid dramatic actress and even sneaks some comedic elements into the film. It definitely gives it a breezier feel and the film moves along at a steady clip. Of course, the plot is illogical, but it works. I would delay in calling this film a noir, for it lacks any of the cynicism and general darkness of the genre, but Sirk's style would definitely make a beautiful noir. He is an extraordinary light technician, evident in all of his films. Every scene in this film takes place inside or in the dark. His exterior locations are quite well done and he definitely has a unique visual style.



Basically, I was impressed to see Sirk working within a genre that wasn't a bourgeois melodrama. I would love to get my hands on another of his early films: Shockproof. But that shall be practically impossible.

Last Days (2005)

Gus Van Sant's Last Days pushes his realist style to the absolute extreme. Van Sant does not give us a biopic on the last days of Kurt Cobain, as many had hoped. Instead, he focuses his camera on a lost soul, an individual alien to his environment, as he wanders, wonders, and makes a bowl of cereal. However, this should not be read as criticism. While this film does not have the impact, the inherent social criticism that his masterpiece Elephant does, it is a challenging film that deserves a more thoughtful examination than, "Nothing happens." The point is that nothing happens, and in not showing "anything", Van Sant pushes what the cinema can do to new grounds.

It is nerely impossible to connect with this film on an emotional level. We are not allowed to know these characters, their connections, their relationships status', etc. Instead, we come to understand that they are bored, isolated, and futureless. While no drug use is ever seen, its effects are overbearing. Characters stumble, stutter, mumble, and fall asleep. Each of these facets makes it more and more difficult to connect.

Van Sant's film is exciting in the way it challenges modern Hollywood aesthetics. It employs moments that Hollywood edits out, and edits out moments that Hollywood would add. The effects of drugs are seen, but they themselves are never present. The suicide, too, is not shown. Van Sant does show the aftermath, but does it in such a way that the typical "shocked" reaction is coopted. Instead, Van Sant employs an overtly metaphysical sequence, to his otherwise realist film. When Blake is discovered, a nude, "ghost" of Blake sits up from the body, turns towards the door, and climbs out of the scene. (I have qualms with this moment because it instantly makes an argument, whereas the rest of the film paints a picture. Besides placing a positive moral-judgment on a character that is otherwise objectively portrayed, the sequence instantly attacks pre-conceived Christian beliefs that suicide is a Heaven barring act.) The film, however, should have ended on this sequence of images:

If Van Sant ends on this last frame, with Blake's foot visible in the background, it solidifies the only readable themes of the film: isolation, invisibility, and hopelessness. Instead, Van Sant steps outside the framework that created the film in effort to make an unneeded point.

Still, it is exciting to see a film-maker taking chances, whether they work or not. Many times they do work. Van Sant is now infamous for using random people from around the city he's shooting in as key actors. In this film, he employs two Elders from the Church of Latter Day Saints and a salesman from the Yellow Pages. These sequences are actually quite funny and acknowledge how incredibly out of touch with reality the characters that inhabit the mansion have become. It also allows Pitt to shine as Blake. Hints of intelligence shine as he mumbles on the subjectivity of success, but in the end, he falls asleep sitting up. This is his character. We can instantly see his past and understand his fate.

Overall, a fresh film that shows that Van Sant is following in the heels of Godard. Challenging the cinema, making people uncomfortable, and taking risks.

A Fresh Start

I am sick of my other blogs in which I can't say anything I'm really feeling, talk shit on people I want to talk shit on, and talk about movies to an audience that cares. So, I am starting this blog that I am going to use almost exclusively as a place to talk about ideas on movies, movies I've seen, movies, movies, movies. So, I will try to update this almost everytime I watch a movie with a lengthy write up. I think that this will be a healthy excercise for me and will really get me where I need to be in terms of film criticism.