Everyone Else (2009)

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Everyone Else (2009) – M. Ade

There’s an awkwardness and tension at a certain earlyish stage of relationships where things are not quite fully decided that director Maren Ade captures painfully here (with the help of brave performances from Birgit Minichmayr and Lars Eidinger). Although it doesn’t reach the outrageous heights that her subsequent film, Toni Erdmann (2016) did, the attention to relationship detail found there is also here.  I’ve read that many people find partners that are not perfectly suited to their own personalities, interests, or internalised norms and rules and, if that happens, it takes a lot of effort (and conflict) to make the relationship work.  Essentially two people need to adapt to each other, to decide where they will and will not compromise for their partner, and the result of this negotiation determines whether the relationship will persist or not.  This film shows that process unfolding during a holiday in Sardinia.  To make matters more tense, another couple appears and the social comparisons that are invited with this couple (who are seemingly more secure) cause further stresses between Chris and Gitti (Eidinger and Minichmayr).  A second look, however, suggests that the other “perfect” couple, although composed of two professionals (architect like Chris and fashion designer, unlike Gitti who does PR for a record company), has resolved their internal dynamic by letting the man completely dominate – he repeatedly belittles his partner (and patronises everyone else). Chris (undoubtedly insecure in the presence of his rival) tries this on (wanting to be like “everyone else”) but Gitti wants none of it.  To Ade’s credit, we in the audience never quite know where the relationship is headed – we endure the little crises (e.g., getting lost while hiking) and the major problems just as we have endured them in reality.  So, if your relationship isn’t quite at the right stage, this might not be a film for date night.  For everyone else, it’s uncomfortable but rewarding.

  

Inglourious Basterds (2009)

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Inglourious Basterds (2009) -- Q. Tarantino

Tarantino superbly controls the dramatic tension, throws in earloads of his patented dialogue, and has fun with some gross-out movie gore. Plus pivotal scenes take place in a cinema, allowing a few winks from this fanboy extraordinaire. You tell me whether it crossed the line to bad taste or not. (2010 review).

Mary and Max (2009)

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Mary and Max (2009) -- A. Elliot

Deliciously detailed with well-earned emotions. Clearly Australian, especially in its comic but honest treatment of darker material. Terrific. (2009 review)

Police, Adjective (2009)

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Police, Adjective (2009) – C. Porumboiu

Was there a Romanian New Wave in the Oughties?  I’m only just catching up.  Puiu’s The Death of Mr. Lazarescu (2005) and Mungiu’s 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (2007) were both great ultra-realist tales showing the bleak state of life in Romania.  Corneliu Porumboiu’s 2009 film follows Puiu by taking a black comedic look at present day post-communist Romania, specifically the (role of the) police force.  Cristi (Dragos Bucur) is a moody undercover cop who is tailing a couple of high school students who are smoking hashish; one of them has informed on the other.  Cristi’s preference is not to bust the suspect because the jail sentence would be too steep and he doesn’t want to ruin the kid’s life (which otherwise seems normal and upper middle class).  His supervisor and the local prosecutor think otherwise.  But Cristi keeps stalling – the film shows us an endless stakeout, ridiculous leads being followed up, and, of course, the relentless bureaucratic nature of police work.  At home, Cristi and his school-teacher wife discuss grammar.  Suspense builds up because nothing is happening (this is again a hyper-realistic anti-thriller). And then, when Cristi is finally called into the supervisor’s office, the coup-de-grace is an amazing scene where the dictionary is consulted and read out to determine whether Cristi has the right to follow his “conscience” (but sneakily, and more importantly, we are led to contemplate whether “police” is a noun or an adjective).  In this one scene, my brain was tickled into considering Cristi’s actions and those of the supervisor in a different light and, without missing a beat, the film resolves as you didn’t think it would (or did you?).  At this point, you can cast your eye back across the film and decide that it was indeed a comedy. Or was it? Maybe not if you live in Romania.

Mother (2009)

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Mother (2009) – Joon-ho Bong

Part murder mystery, part character study -- really a showcase for Hye-ja Kim who pulls out all the stops in her portrayal of an over-protective and truly creepy mother. Well scripted and shot, relying on the conventions of genre when it needs to, but hardly bound to them.

A Prophet (2009)

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

A Prophet (2009) – J. Audiard

Not your average prison flick, but something more gritty and visceral, with a hero/anti-hero who listens and learns but is opaque to the viewer (think Le Samourai). On the surface, the story is straightforward (and occasionally brutal) but simmering under are racial identity issues, father-son dynamics, a moral code of sorts, and possibly second sight. Never less than enthralling.

About Elly (2009)

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ½

About Elly (2009) – A. Farhadi

The Iranian cinema (that we get to see in the West) has been so astonishing for so long that it feels incredible to find a new Master in Asghar Farhadi (Oscar winner for A Separation). Kiarostami, Makhmalbaf, and Panahi (among others) have managed to incorporate another level to many of their films that asks the viewer to question what she or he is seeing (reality or artifice? truth or fiction?) and that same vein is mined to great effect in About Elly.  Farhadi shows us a group of married friends (with children) from Tehran who decide to visit the Caspian seaside for the weekend.  One of them, Sepideh (played warmly by Golshifteh Farahani), surprises them by bringing along her daughter’s single teacher, Elly, to meet their recently divorced friend Ahmad visiting from Germany.  The lies begin when the holiday villa they were supposed to have booked turns out to be unavailable – and they continue as members of the group routinely keep things from each other (a natural state of affairs) or join in the charade.  A “L’Avventura” styled plot twist opens up even more questions and mysteries descend on the group.  Farhadi does an excellent job of maintaining a high level of tension (almost too high!) and orchestrating a large number of actors, all in the dark, as the film tilts this way and that in search of a resolution.    

The Secret in their Eyes (2009)

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

The Secret in their Eyes (2009) – J. J. Campanella

This Argentinian film won the Best Foreign Film Oscar in 2010 (beating out Haneke’s The White Ribbon and Audiard’s A Prophet – both great).  Ricardo Darin (remembered from Nine Queens) plays a retired police court inspector now writing a novel about a perplexing rape/murder case (seen distressingly in flashback).  The film jumps back and forth between past and present, and eventually clues us in to start questioning the accuracy of “the past” being depicted (is this a novelistic treatment to provide dramatic effect, a consciously or unconsciously wishful reconstruction, or an unvarnished rendering of the facts of the case?).  Regardless, the stereotypical thriller plot keeps the viewer hooked even as it broaches topics usually eschewed such as the lasting impact of grief, vengeance, injustice and even lost love, as we age through the decades.

White Material (2009)

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

White Material (2009) -- C. Denis

J. Hoberman used the word "lysergic" in his review and that's pretty apt because the Tindersticks soundtrack, used sparingly, does provide a hazy druggy sheen to parts of the movie.  Isabelle Huppert is determined to ignore the trouble that is all around her as the colonial era comes to a decided end in her part of Africa.  Claire Denis's film unblinkingly covers the terrain:  both rebels and the military armed and dangerous along with child soldiers seemingly in their own militia and perhaps much more dangerous.  The social and psychological effects of white settlement (and ownership -- Huppert runs a coffee plantation) in Africa are the focus -- the unnamed country is divided by their feelings toward the outsiders (even those born there).  Denis, also born and raised in Africa, provides impressions, images, something of a story, to show the legacy of (French) involvement and exploitation.  Shot in Cameroon, this is a beautiful horrifying and unresolved film.