Elena (2011)

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Elena (2011) – A. Zvyagintsev

A study of the contrasts in modern Russia with Nadezhda Markina’s title character caught right in the middle.  She’s a late middle-aged former nurse recently married to a very rich older man who she previously took care of after a hospital stay.  Both have adult children from previous marriages.  Elena’s son is married with two kids but jobless and living in a run down apartment building covered in graffiti.  Elena’s husband does not approve and seeks to stop her from giving money to her son.  Clearly, he wields all the power in their relationship and he brusquely asks her to serve him.  Director Zvyagintsev (The Return, Leviathan, Loveless) takes a long time setting up the characters and their lives and the juxtaposition between their wealthy upper class existence and the son’s relative poverty (but also their earthiness against his ruthlessness).  Eventually, the plot turns into a sort of morality play when Elena needs to come to terms with her husband’s disdain for her family (and herself?).  Perhaps she takes a leaf from her husband’s estranged daughter’s book (played superbly by Elena Lyadova, tough but human).  Similarly to his other features, Zvyagintsev gives no hints as to where the plot might lead, which ultimately creates suspense.  The denouement, though puzzling, can be read in multiple ways – it feels deeply ambivalent.  The film also looks beautiful with a quality of natural light (often bright sunlight) that makes each image seem like an artwork all its own. 

  

Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (2011)

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (2011) – N. B. Ceylan

This is the third film I’ve seen from the Turkish master who has a way of getting inside his characters’ heads, so that you know what they must be thinking even though they don’t voice their thoughts.  (The others were Distant and Winter Sleep). This time, in the context of a perfunctory police investigation (finding the corpse after the killers have confessed to where it is), we are privileged to an on-again, off-again conversation between The Prosecutor and The Doctor that rather accidentally leads one to discover an unpleasant and personal truth.  This bit (which might be the “point” of the otherwise discursive script) has been adapted from Chekhov (apparently) but Ceylan takes it one step further (into the autopsy room).  Despite this glorious nugget buried at the end (or in addition to it), the film is still a beautifully shot panorama (in night colors) of the Turkish foothills with what must be a conscious nod to Kiarostami (the Wind Will Carry Us, Close-Up, others), who has a similar way of inserting thoughts in the viewer, as if by prestidigitation.  Somehow the way the film is shot (those slow zooms?) has the ability to concentrate your attention on its details (relevant or not) and this can carry viewers through the epic length. 

Margaret (2011)

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Margaret (2011) -- K. Longergan

Filmed in 2005 and then running into post-production hell and legal troubles until release in 2011, Margaret is a heavy duty melodrama set in motion by the swirling intensity of unbridled and immature emotions released by Lisa Cohen (played expertly by Anna Paquin) after witnessing a bus accident.  A few mentions of (or visits to) the Opera highlight the film's main thrust -- in her head, life is an overwrought drama of good and evil, with demands and responsibilities to pursue the most moral course of action.  Yes, these are the dictums of adolescence, when there are so many opportunities to blunder and so many agonies of embarrassment on the path to truth.   Indeed, director Kenneth Lonergan took this theme (and the title) from a poem by Gerard Manley Hopkins, which suggests that we may actually end up missing the emotional intensities of our youth.  But truly they are a train wreck to watch!  (For what it's worth, I watched the 186 minute extended version of Margaret, which apparently involves different editing and sound -- with a rather meditative view of New York City interspersed throughout).

The Descendants (2011)

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

The Descendants (2011) -- A. Payne

I've enjoyed Alexander Payne's films (Sideways, Election, etc.) so I picked this up even though I am generally over-saturated with George Clooney at this point.  Here, he plays the dad who is coping with his wife in a coma and his 10 and 17 yr old daughters in Hawaii where they live (and are descendants of the original indigenous royalty). Payne keeps things gently rolling (or is that the Hawaiian music?) and Clooney provides a very low-key almost one-note performance (perhaps too low-key?).  I did feel a few times that I was watching something meant to be therapeutic, as the script investigated the characters' relationships to each other and exposed their general humanness.  But eventually I was won over, probably by the Ozu-like interludes that allow for (but do not demand) reflection and the not entirely predictable course of action.

Midnight in Paris (2011)

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Midnight in Paris (2011) -- W. Allen

I've only slowly returned to Woody Allen, after so many seemingly inconsequential films in a row. But I'm glad I did. Perhaps Midnight in Paris caught me in the right mood, in need of a pick-me-up and a reminder of the special role of art in this occasionally brain-bruising world. I was willing to take the trip to Paris with Owen Wilson (and even before the opening credits, I was dazzled by the montage of Parisian sights) and this film cast a magic spell over me as well as him.

Martha Marcy May Marlene (2011)

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Martha Marcy May Marlene (2011) -- T. S. Durkin

Spooky tale of a girl who escapes from a hippie cult (with obvious and direct references to the Manson Family) and the aftermath of her time there (seen in flashback).  Generally, the effects of trauma and brainwashing seem realistic (as acted vacantly by Elizabeth Olson) but the yuppie couple (her sister and her husband) who take her in are a bit beyond belief.  Genuinely moody and paranoid, if you like that sort of thing (which I do).  I believe this is the first directorial outing for Sean Durkin, championed by Sundance.

A Separation (2011)

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ½

A Separation (2011) -- A. Farhadi

Serious melodrama from Iran (winner of the best foreign film Oscar last year) that is also a mystery story, a courtroom drama, a Rashomon-like tale of multiple conflicting viewpoints, and a reflection on lying, truth, and morality.  Shot in a style more appropriate for documentaries captured on the fly (which is also a strategy used by other Iranians in the past, such as Kiarostami), Asghar Farhadi conceals telling details from us even as he chooses to show other intimate moments. This is after all a view into a relationship that is falling apart.  Often heart and gut wrenching but nevertheless intellectually teasing, this time Oscar got it right.

The Tree of Life (2011)

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ½

The Tree of Life (2011) – T. Malick

Some movies elicit thoughts at higher rates than others -- suffice it to say Malick's film generates them fairly steadily all the way through (including such thoughts as "what the hell is that?" and "is that CGI or real?", not to mention the more existential and religious thoughts that were likely intended). The movie roughly focuses on recalled memories of a 1950s Texas childhood and parallel to that, the birth, early years, and presumed death of the universe. But everything is in snippets, brief dialogue-less anecdotes, voice-overs, occasional longer scenes and a heap of tracking shots. In the experimental portion, we see images from the Hubble telescope, underwater worlds, sunflowers, and much more -- all beautiful. At its end, a possibly Christian conclusion, there are echoes of Bergman and Fellini (compounding the Kubrick 2001 starting point). So, that's a lot going on in one movie, and while it drags in places, it is certainly worth a look (on the big screen).