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Get Low - PG-13 - 100 min - Scope
A = Auditorium
S = Screening RoomRobert Duvall, that grand old man of the American cinema, has his juiciest role in years -- one that will surely be remembered come awards time -- as a crusty Tennessee hermit with a guilty secret in Aaron Schneider's beautifully crafted "Get Low."
Lou Lumenick, New York Daily Post
This colorful folk tale is inspired by the true story of an eccentric who in 1938 threw a funeral party for himself while he was alive -- an event that drew as many as 12,000 people.
For the filmmakers' purposes, Duvall's character, called Felix Bush, has spent 40 years alone on his farm -- a self-imposed exile ("the first 38 years were the hardest") for an offense that nobody but him really remembers at this point.
Did he kill a man? Kill two?
Even Bush's old flame, Mattie (Sissy Spacek), a widow recently returned to town, isn't really sure what happened, even though it may have involved her own late sister.
She's certainly intrigued, along with everyone else, when Felix approaches Frank Quinn (Bill Murray), the local funeral director, to arrange a huge public party.
Frank thinks Felix is crazy, but he isn't going to argue with Felix's fat wad of cash when his seeming Depression-proof business is somehow failing.
Helping Felix with his plan -- which includes his personal radio invitation to people in four counties to show up and tell stories about Felix and join in a raffle for his farm -- is Frank's young assistant, Buddy (Lucas Black), who is skeptical about the entire enterprise.
What Frank really wants -- and needs -- to do is to come clean before his impending end, something he just can't bring himself to do. He, Frank and Buddy try mightily to recruit Felix's only friend -- an elderly black preacher (Bill Cobbs) who knows the whole story -- as a surrogate.
It's not exactly giving away anything to report that Felix's eventual confession before the crowd is one of Duvall's finest pieces of acting ever.
Duvall and Spacek are so in tune with each other's rhythms -- despite their 20-year age difference -- that it's hard to believe they've never acted together before.
And then there's the dryly hilarious Murray as a man at the end of his rope -- "What do you do when people won't die?" -- who will also likely be recognized at Oscar nomination time.
In "Get Low" -- regional slang for being buried -- these three pros take a story that could have been pure schmaltz and spin it into pure gold.
I Am Love - R - 120 min - Flat
Italian w/ English Subtitles
A = Auditorium
S = Screening RoomDid she understand when she married her husband what sort of family she was joining? She knew they were rich Italian aristocrats, operators of textile mills in Milan. But did she understand that as a wife from Russia, she would serve and provide and even be loved, but would never truly be a member?
Review by Roger Ebert
When we see Emma (Tilda Swinton) she is preparing the Recchi house for the birthday party of the patriarch. She seems to relate more as a caterer than as a hostess. At the head of the table is the grand old Edoardo (Gabriele Ferzetti). Among those gathered are his son and her husband, Tancredi (Pippo Delbono). The old man makes an unexpected announcement: He is retiring, and putting Tancredi in charge. But not Tancredi alone. His grandson, their son, Edo (Flavio Parenti) also will share the responsibility.
Is Emma filled with joy? Her husband and son will inherit the dynasty? She is so calm and expert, it's hard to say. Tilda Swinton is a daring actress who doesn't project emotions so much as embody them. “I Am Love” provides an ideal role for her, in that her actions speak instead of words. We learn she has her own private space, that after launching a family event, she likes to leave it running smoothly and retire to her room upstairs.
The opening act of Luca Guadagnino's film establishes the stature of the Recchi family as surely as the Corleones are established in “The Godfather,” or the Salinas in Visconti's “The Leopard.” It may be impossible to write about this film without evoking “The Leopard,” not simply because they both involve Italian aristocrats, but because they involve matters of succession, and the way that love and lust can breach the walls aristocrats live behind. Guadagnino makes the connection inescapable by the use of the name Tancredi; in “The Leopard,” Alain Delon pays the Salina nephew of that name.
The Recchi family has been living in a particular way for a long time. Cushioned by great wealth, working in an industry associated with style, never challenged, well-educated, its hungers cloaked in tradition, it occupies its place of privilege effortlessly. Emma speaks Italian fluently, but with a Russian accent, a reminder that she is not quite one of them.
Few actresses can embody urgent sexual desire so well as Swinton. She is realistic about such feelings. When she learns her daughter Elisabetta (Alba Rohrwacher) is a lesbian, she reacts not as a mother, possibly with shock, but as a woman, in surprise and curiosity. She has heard of such things. The heart has its reasons.
The feast opening the film is prepared by Antonio (Edoardo Gabbriellini), a friend of her son Edo's. She consults with this young chef, and a feeling passes into her. Later, on a visit to her daughter in San Remo, she happens to see Antonio, and with decision follows him through the streets. This is all done without dialogue. The camera is pursuer and pursued. The longer she follows him, the more certain they must meet.
Of course they make love. Actresses are often called upon to enact sex in the movies. Swinton does it differently with each character, understanding that sexuality is as distinctive as speech or taste. Emma is urgent as if a dam has burst, releasing not passion but happiness. Of course this affair threatens her relationship with her husband, her son and her family. But most long-established families have overcome the inconveniences of adultery. Continuity is more important than commitment. The film now observes the ways, not predictable, in which this new sexual act affects Emma's role.
All this time, Guadagnino has been paying due attention to other important members of the family. There is Allegra (Marisa Berenson), gatekeeper of her husband. There is the long-serving housekeeper Ida (Maria Paiato), who sees and understands everything and in many ways is Emma's refuge in the household. There is the personality of Emma's son, Edo, as yet untouched by the ordeals of business life, more open in his personal feelings. And there is the overarching sense in which the Recchi family embodies a tradition which, like a church, requires devotion if not belief.
“I Am Love” is an amazing film. It is deep, rich, human. It is not about rich and poor, but about old and new. It is about the ancient war between tradition and feeling. For this role, Tilda Swinton learned to speak Italian with a Russian accent, as Tilda Swinton would, but her performance is nothing as trivial as a feat of learning. She evokes Emma as a woman who for years has accepted the needs of the Recchis and discovers in a few days to accept her own needs. She must have been waiting a long time for Antonio, whoever he would be.
The Kids Are All Right - R - 106 min - Flat
A = Auditorium
S = Screening Room"The Kids Are All Right” centers on a lesbian marriage, but is not about one. It's a film about marriage itself, an institution with challenges that are universal. Just imagine: You're expected to live much, if not all, of your married life with another adult. We're not raised for this.
The married couple involves Jules (Julianne Moore) and Nic (Annette Bening). They're raising a boy named Laser (Josh Hutcherson) and a girl named Joni (Mia Wasikowska). Each mother gave birth to one of the children, and because the same anonymous sperm donor was used, they're half-siblings. Home life is casual and happy, upper middle class. Nic is a doctor, Jules is unfocused and lately thinking she might go into landscape gardening. Like many couples, they're going through a little mid-life crisis.
That's nothing compared to what awaits them, in a smart comedy by Lisa Cholodenko, whose “High Art” and “Laurel Canyon” showed those particular slices of Los Angeles we think we might find ourselves in for a period, before we got our acts together.
The imperfect but stable home life of her family is disturbed by the decision of the children to seek out their birth father. Jules and Nic are staunchly liberal and approve of this in theory. In practice, they find it disturbing.
The father turns out to be Paul (Mark Ruffalo), the kind of onetime hippie who says things like, “Sure, I mean ... sure, yes, of course ... I mean, why not? Sure.” He's with the program. He runs a cozy little organic restaurant with food from his own organic garden, has never married, has no other children and is way cool in a way that involves no conscious effort. He thinks it's cool to meet his kids, it's cool their moms are married, it's cool they invite him for dinner. I mean ... sure, yes, of course ... I mean, why not? Sure.
Learning that Jules is taking up landscape design, he hires her to design the garden area sloping down behind his house in what looks like the Hollywood Hills. And what with bringing in bags of soil and standing in the sun with him discussing plans, Jules and Paul like, have sex. I mean, why not?
This causes a great deal of unhappiness when it's discovered, but not operatic grief and passion. More feelings of betrayal on Nic's part, and confusion from Jules and Paul, who didn't expect their secret to be discovered and, like, we're not thinking of getting married or anything, and are really, truly sorry. So are the kids, because they love their moms, and they like Paul a lot, too.
Cholodenko, writing with Stuart Blumberg, is wise to keep her tone light. “The Kids Are All Right” isn't a laffaminit comedy, but it is a comedy, and fondly satirical of Nic's tendency to be quite serious. I refuse to call it a “gay film.” I toyed with the idea of not even using the word “lesbian” and leaving it to you to figure out that the couple was female. This is a romantic triangle happening to involve these three people.
What interests Cholodenko is who they are. Moore and Bening are superb actors here, evoking a marriage of more than 20 years, and all of its shadings and secrets, idealism and compromise. Nic is more of the mind, Jules is more of the heart. The film gives them convincing, intelligent dialogue, mannerisms that fit and children who, having been raised outside homophobic hysteria, are nice and well-adjusted. And with Mark Ruffalo's Paul, the film creates a slightly exaggerated version of a character like many we may have met: casually progressive, a little unfocused, pleasant and agreeable. I mean, why not?Review by Roger Ebert, suntimes.com
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