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macleod5555
Reviews
Breaking Upwards (2009)
A Wonderful Intimate Movie
Back when I was in high school, I showed a group of my friends Woody Allen's Annie Hall. When it was over, everyone agreed that they'd enjoyed it, but I was asked to explain why, exactly, it was such a classic/masterpiece/staple of American filmdom. At the time I didn't really have a good answer beyond the fact that it was funny. But looking back, I saw that aside from being one of the best romantic comedies, it was also one of the saddest romantic tragedies. And the tragedy isn't theatrical melodramatic. The couple isn't separated by war or terminal illness or mutual suicide or anything like that. The tragedy is quieter: the lovers separate because, simply, people fall out of love. Or, put directly by a stranger passing Woody Allen on the street, "Love fades." And afterwords, when everything settles, the partners are older and hopefully wiser, able to look back fondly from a distance without bitterness or regret. And that, to me, is more beautiful and sad than any idealized tragic love affair.
All of which brings us to Breaking Upwards, another New York tragicomic love story, which I had the good fortune of seeing this weekend at the Brooklyn International Film Festival (or BIFF). Breaking Upwards follows two New York hipsters who, after a four year relationship, decide that they're no longer happy together but somehow can't stand being apart. And so they decide to break up by increments: they take days off, experiment with open relationships, and hope that they can wean themselves off of co-dependence.
The film feels very much like a labor of love. In an autobiographical move (one that feels more gutsy than indulgent), filmmakers Daryl Wein and Zoe Lister-Jones co-wrote the script based on their own relationship and star, somewhat nakedly, as fictionalized versions of themselves, even sharing their first name with their character. (Wein also directs, and Lister-Jones wrote the lyrics for the film's original songs). But more important is that it feels real: intimate and heartfelt.
At its best, the film feels very well observed, with a naturalistic tone that knows how to find small bits of comedy and sadness in the details. The performers play off one another with ease and chemistry, as the situation starts funny and turns melancholy. Daryl and Zoe trade off the upper-hand, each taking turns feeling hurt and, despite their intentions, being hurtful.
The film plays with conflicting desires: possessiveness with a need for freedom, looking for someone else and regretting it afterwords. And for the most part, it plays the emotion with a light hand. "I don't want to do this if you're not OK," Zoe says to Daryl before she goes to stay with another man. "Yes you do," he cuts her off. And then the exchange ends with exasperated sighs and a parting of ways.
Unfortunately, the film does less well in moments that feel more calculated: a laugh line here or there, a character, a scene. Near the end, the public dinner table climax (followed by a witty remark) feels closer to stock movie situations than the naturalism that suits the film so well.
But it ends quiet and open, with graceful ambiguity.
Part of Breaking Upwards' appeal is the hand-crafted appeal of independent film. Extras are enthusiastically credited based on how many times they were willing to appear (3x!), and the way the lighting sometimes switches from realism to expressionism, rather than an inconsistency, feels like new filmmakers playing with technique. Even the occasional low sound quality adds to the feeling of young people making do.
At the screening, the filmmakers said that they've been having difficulty finding a distributor so far, which is a pity. The movie is not perfect or Earth-shattering or anything more than a fine redux of older ideas (the main caveat is that anyone with an aversion for hipsters would likely be turned off). But it's funny and it's sad, covering time-honored thematic ground with an open-hearted affection that makes those time-honored themes feel personal. And it's better than most movies that are out right now.
At the screening I went to, you could feel everyone on the emotional wavelength of the movie. Personal and universal are similar. Here's hoping that more people get the chance to see it.
Million Dollar Baby (2004)
So emotionally manipulative, and yet...it was so well acted and directed that I liked it. 8/10
The plot, in case you don't know or are too lazy to read the summary above, is about Maggie (Swank), a thirty-something waitress from a "white trash" background who strives against all odds to become a boxer. Her trainer is Frankie Dunn (Eastwood), a cranky old man with a guilty conscience and an unwillingness to take risks. Frankie is initially unwilling to train Maggie, but after she persists, he gives in, and the boxing movie commences, from the training sequences to the matches.
Eastwood is a great director and the three leads (Eastwood, Swank, and Freeman) are wonderful. That cannot be disputed, at least not with a logical argument. Million Dollar Baby is wonderfully filmed (particularly the boxing scenes), and there were a few times when I honestly couldn't take my eyes off the screen. However, it is, in my opinion, not one of the best of 2004, let alone of the best of all time.
The main problem, I guess (at least from my jaded point of view), is that the characters never seem real. "Real characters" are necessary for a movie that strives for an emotional impact via the road of gritty realism, and rarely during Million Dollar Baby did I ever feel that Frankie and Maggie were anything more than movie characters (<---something that I can't say about the characters in Sideways, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, or Eastwood's Mystic River). Eastwood and Freeman give great performances, and Swank truly is Oscar-worthy, but their characters' back-stories and lines of dialogue are so obviously doctored, calculated to create maximum tragic potential. If it wasn't handled so well by Eastwood, I probably wouldn't have taken it seriously at all.
This is a movie that goes for the heart rather than the head. Romantic simplicity takes the place of realism, so if you're less hardened than I, you'll probably find it more affecting. Though it's not particularly clever (even with its special twist, which is not as daring or original as you've undoubtedly heard), but its so well acted and directed that its impossible not to feel happy for Maggie when she succeeds or sorry for Maggie when...well, see the movie.
SPOILERS...MY TAKE ON THE TWIST BELOW...SPOILERS. SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS The twist is...........Maggie gets cheapshotted in a fight and ends up paralyzed. The last half hour of the movie is Eastwood and Swank dealing with her paralysis. Yes, this is daring in that it doesn't go for a typical Hollywood happy ending, but may I remind you that there is still such a thing as a Hollywood sad ending. Instead of being a clichéd underdog triumph story, Million Dollar Baby is a traditional tearjerker in the vein of Love Story or Terms of Endearment.
Final take: See it. Its a good movie with some Oscar worthy acting, but it definitely doesn't deserve a Best Picture statue. 8 out of 10.
Daredevil (2003)
Wasted Potential.
After a very promising opening half hour, the movie just starts to suck, and not because of Ben Affleck (he's as good as anyone could be) and not because its about a blind superhero (the character of Daredevil is awesome). It sucked because the dialogue is laughable (Affleck and Garner share the cheesiest romantic lines since Hayden Christiansen and Natalie Portman), some scenes are taken directly from Batman, and I highly suspect that the director himself is blind because the action sequences are so dimly lit and full of flashing lights that all you can see is a vague red blur. Also, the movie, with a running time of 96 minutes, is over half and hour shorter than great superhero movies like Superman, Spiderman, and Batman, so the whole thing feels rushed. The appropriate amount of time is spent on his childhood, but after that its like your watching cliffs notes. The three non-Affleck leads don't get the screen time they deserve or need to develop there characters: the entirity of Jennifer Garner's action scenes are in the previews, and so little time is spent on Colin Farrel and Michael Clarke Duncan that, despite great appropriately over-the-top performances, they just can't be anywhere near as good as supervillains like Willem Dafoe or Jack Nicholson. The whole premise is just so cool that I cry at the movie Daredevil could have been.