(500) days of summer was the least satisfying, with characters who are barely quirky, clever or interesting enough to drive a romantic comedy, but they threw the rom-com formula out the window and paid a funny hobo to kick it around a little. Joseph Gordon-Levitt has had some great roles in recent films (The Lookout, Stop-Loss, and my favorite film of 2007, Brick), but the underwhelming character and his flawed choices made him repulsive. Zooey Deschanel smirked her way through this one again, as the unreachable, passionless, but jawsomely-hipsterific secretary. The timeline of their 500 day relationship jumbles all over the place and makes this film quirky and a bit of a head-scratcher, but the conclusion was surprisingly satisfying, considering how much it kicks around movie conventions. It is also the first film in recent memory that portrays Los Angeles beautifully and respectfully.
"In a Lonely Place" is a terrific Humphrey Bogart thriller from 1950, being shown at a retrospective of Nicholas Ray (director of Rebel Without a Cause among others). The dialog pops like crazy early on, when Dixon Steele (Bogart), a cynical, disliked but bankable Hollywood screenwriter is accused of murdering a checkroom girl. His best friend is the officer assisting the investigation, and his manager is the sheistiest stereotyped Hollywood Jew. A new neighbor (a tight-sweatered Gloria Grahame) comes into his life and the movie takes a terrifically lovey-dovey turn, and Bogart can be seen smiling for the eighth time in his career. Ray's career was largely affected by the blacklist period, so the anxiety, distrust, and paranoia of the day is brilliantly portrayed throughout as it reaches it's breakneck conclusion.
"The Last Winter" is a stunning psychological/supernatural/environmental horror film that I liked enormously although I admit I have the least experience with horror films out of any genre. This is a story of an Alaska drilling outpost in a murky area on a murky mission (disclaimer: this is the heaviest chunk of enviro-guilt). There is serious drama early on as balls-bigger-than-his-brain Pollock (Ron Perlman, duh), the leader of the pack, returns to his mostly loyal team to confront Hoffman, the government scientist who stands as a barrier to the mission. Pollock basically barks orders and forced bonds of loyalty to the rest of his crew which includes the requisite pothead/mechanic (Kevin Corrigan who I get to work with soon SWEEEET), Maxwell, his little nephew whose cracking under the pressure, and Abby, the only female aside from the motherly nurse Dawn. Oh, there's also a silent Native American dude who reproduces the crying Indian commercial nearly perfectly. Abby and Hoffman got a little romance goin on, which pisses off Pollock and actually works me up a bit too: the conventional horror movie female role is totally untouched here, as she provides absolutely no purpose in the formula aside from sexual release, a calming tone and perfect hair (Spoiler Alert: She is left stranded and helpless in a utility closet, whining into a radio). The enviro-guilt is laid on heavy during Hoffman's voiceovers of how we fucked up hard and the Earth is gonna kill us. This occurs over some compelling and freaky montage edits, created by the director/producer/character actor/man of many hats Larry Fessenden (whom I've had the pleasure of working with before and again soon). Maxwell goes off the deep end and some bizarre, creepy and incredibly well-executed deaths, disappearances and breakdowns occur. There are a few explanations for why--some of them are satisfying in their invisibility and some are clunky in the CGI representations. Obviously, the entertaining factors of "The Last Winter" are not in the Why but in the How. Shit gets freaky, there are explosions and hallucinations and it's all pretty badass. Netflixit.
~J
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