Big Picture Big Sound

I had already cleared my Saturday schedule, so even residual blurred vision and a lingering popcorn hangover weren't enough to keep me from heading out on March 1 to Day Two of AMC's Best Picture Showcase. (In case you missed Day One, you can check it out here.) So, back to the AMC Hoffman Center in Arlington, VA I went, to set myself up for a stint of five movies in a row. Food? Check. Water? Check. Seat so close to the screen that I could almost touch it? Done, and I settled in to watch round two of the showcase, with my usual plan of sending out Twitter updates between the films.

Tweet, 11:40am: Day Two of #amcbps! Look fwd to #Nebraska, #Her, #AmericanHustle & #Gravity. Not psyched for 2nd viewing of #CaptainPhillips.

Day One of the showcase was really entertaining as I hadn't seen any of the nominees ("Philomena", "Dallas Buyers Club", "The Wolf of Wall Street", "12 Years a Slave") that were scheduled for that day. For Day Two I was expecting a little more of a challenge as I had two repeats on the docket: "Gravity", which I had already seen in 3D, in that very same theater in fact, and enjoyed a lot, and "Captain Phillips", which I saw and didn't love. This should be apparent from my previous review for Big Picture Big Sound. I figured "Gravity" would be a zero-sum game; I'd probably enjoy it just as much the second time around. No such hope, unfortunately, for "Captain Phillips", though I was mildly interested to see if Tom Hanks's performance in the last five minutes of the film was as affecting upon second viewing. So, I went into Day Two planning to stay through "Gravity" but on the fence about another go-round with the Captain.

Tweet, 11:59am: #amcbps is off to a lo-fi start with #Nebraska #blackandwhite #yay

Tweet, 1:59pm: Loved #Nebraska. Fierce, quiet, beautiful, an elegy and a celebration - great start to #amcbps Day Two.

I do love a good black and white movie. I'd say it's a palate cleanser -
but I'm aware of the potentially painful pun there, so... Anyway, I went into "Nebraska" with no real knowledge of it beyond familiarity with director Alexander Payne's previous work ("Sideways", "Election") and awareness that Bruce Dern was a nominee for Best Actor on the strength of his performance as an aging man who sets off from his home in Montana in dogged pursuit of the million dollar lottery prize that he believes he has won in Lincoln, Nebraska. As with any good road trip story, "Nebraska" isn't about the goal, it's about the journey. Thus we follow Mr. Dern's Woody Grant and his son David, played by Will Forte, as they set out on a multi-state trek toward the million dollar prize - though David knows that it's all a misunderstanding: there is no money, and he's just indulging his father's harmless dream. Mr. Forte brings a gentle comic touch to his role as the well-meaning son, but it's Woody who holds center stage here. He's dogged and exasperating without inviting contempt, and Mr. Dern plays him as a bit of a blank slate at times - which is surprisingly touching and utterly appropriate, as the recollections of other characters reveal as much of his nature as Woody's own actions do. June Squibb rightly earned a best supporting actress nomination for her role as Woody's wife. She's shrill and not particularly charitable in her assessment of others, but when it's needed she displays a fierce love that's driven by an unsentimental understanding of Woody's particular blessings and shortcomings. This is just one of the themes that the film explores: the varied nature of love and how it drives our actions. It's also touches on the differences between generations and the often surprising vista of family history. In keeping with this theme "Nebraska"'s cinematography is old-fashioned, and it's gorgeous. The sheer depth of field in many shots makes you realize how muddy the backgrounds can be in a standard color film. And the use of visible shift of focus in longer dialogue shots instead cutaway editing is a lovely touch that helps to maintain that old-fashioned feel. Overall, "Nebraska" is a quiet gem of a film, picturesque, funny, touching, and full of grace.

Tweet, 2:14pm: At #amcbps. I'd like to thank the Academy...for making me sit through #CaptainPhillips again. #notreally #sigh

I decided to stay for the first half hour or so of "Captain Phillips", then inertia won out and I wound up sitting through the whole thing again. Did a second viewing improve my thoughts on the film? Unequivocally not. I took a few notes during the showcase, and here's a sample: "pacing is a mess", "bet script has a lot of exclamation points!", "hard to focus", and, "I think they made it longer". Of course they didn't actually make it longer since the first time I saw it, but boy, it felt that way. Without the momentum of wondering where the story was headed I just couldn't keep my mind on the forward motion of the film, and the things that irritated me the first time around - Tom Hanks's clumsy New England accent, the lack of background to frame the story, and oh, the yelling! - became outright annoyances the second time around. So, was there anything I liked? Yes: those last five minutes of Mr. Hanks's performance, when his character finally realizes that he is safe and breaks down shaking and sobbing, were still incredibly emotional. Barkhad Abdi's nominated supporting performance as Somali pirate Muse is perhaps even more impressive the second time around. And, from a perfectly utilitarian perspective, this was a good snacking movie; all the ambient noise and characters shouting provided good cover for unwrapping and munching on a granola bar - which is something I definitely couldn't get away with during "Nebraska".

Tweet, 4:43pm: Have heard great things about #Her - looking forward to seeing it next @ #amcbps!

Tweet, 7:16pm: Thought at first that #Her might have been oversold, but it surprised me; edgy, funny, poetic. #SpikeJonze is a philosopher. #amcbps

"Her" starts out with an idea that you may or may not be ready for: a man who's struggling to come to terms with the end of his marriage falls in love with his computer. At best it sounds like an ill-advised reimagining of 1984's odd romantic comedy, "Electric Dreams"; at worst it sounds like an adolescent nerd's sad fantasy life run amok. Happily, "Her" gracefully skirts both of these potential pitfalls and proves to be one of the most thoughtful, deeply felt films of the year. Set in a near-future Los Angeles, the films aesthetics are just off-kilter enough to make the central story conceit seem plausible: there's a new computer operating system that is sentient and learns as you interact with it, eventually developing its own personality. Depressed writer Theodore Twombly (Joaquin Phoenix) obtains his new o/s, which promptly names herself Samantha and starts getting to know him. She's voiced by Scarlett Johansson, whose vocal work here is a revelation. It's charming to watch/hear the rapport develop between Theodore and Samantha, and it's funny how easily other people accept their relationship as an okay thing - some of his friends are surprised by it, but nobody is shocked or disgusted. This lack of judgment clears the way for the film to introduce some unexpectedly deep philosophical questions about fellowship and compatibility and romantic love, the development of identity and self, and the changing nature of relationships - and then it goes way, way past all of those themes and into a speculative future when consciousness itself will have evolved completely and the possibility of connecting to others on a higher level will negate the need for the one-to-one relationship model that is the basis of our current social structure.

Several times the film makes a point of showing that Theodore isn't the only one in a crowd who's walking around seeming to talk to himself because he's chatting with the disembodied Samantha, and it's clear that such scenes are already around us every day - people on cell phones, or dictating things into smart phones, or just distracted by their attention being electronically engaged elsewhere - and we're ok with it. So, is the potential "post-body" future so implausible? It's ok if you don't want to think about such dizzying possibilities, because "Her" also asks the viewer to ponder how we relate to one another in the here and now, and how we can evolve right now by learning to love others without needing to own them, and letting them go when it's time to do so. Heavy stuff, but handled with a light touch by the always surprising writer/director Spike Jonze. Bravo!

Tweet, 7:29pm: Seems the nearby #Starbucks closes at 5pm on Saturday. Gods of bad timing, if I snooze through #AmericanHustle it's your fault. #amcbps

From Christian Bale's crouching hairpiece to Amy Adams's extreme cleavage, from Bradley Cooper's man-perm to Jennifer Lawrence's sparkly eyeshadow, "American Hustle" pulls off the same trick that made last year's "Argo" so aesthetically satisfying: it's a movie set in the late 70s that actually looks like it came out of the late 70s. There are no ironic quotes around the costumes or set dressing here. That same sense of authenticity pervades the relationships among the main characters, and the audience is quickly pulled into a web of intrigue as Mr. Bale's seedily charismatic con-man tries to navigate agreements and misunderstandings with his wife (Ms. Lawrence), his girlfriend and partner in crime (Ms. Adams) and a federal agent (Mr. Cooper) who's wise to their scheme - or is he? Along for the ride is Jeremy Renner as the mayor of Camden, NJ, wearing a pompadour like he was born under it, and Louis C.K. making the absolute most of his role as Cooper's spoilsport FBI boss. "American Hustle" is the kind of caper film where almost everyone knows more than they're letting on (look for Robert De Niro in a cameo as a mob guy who pulls a surprising ace out of his deck), and along the way it makes some incisive points about every relationship as a potential con - how can you ever know that someone is who they seem to be? "American Hustle" is a film that will happily stand up to second or third viewings - in fact, it might almost be necessary to see it more than once, both to exercise the shift in perspective provided by a surprise final act reveal, and to spend more time soaking up the glitzy, disco-driven sensibilities of NYC in the Halston era.
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Much as I enjoyed "American Hustle" and would have liked to stay for a second showing of "Gravity", I found that by the end of four films I was just about done. The idea of shifting gears and throwing on 3D glasses for the last 90 minutes of the showcase wasn't just unappealing; it seemed insurmountable. So, I'd say that I made it almost all of the way through both parts of this year's Best Picture Showcase; getting to the finish line for real will give me something to shoot for in 2015. In the meantime, I'm excited to be able to watch the Oscars having seen all of the nominated films for the first time in ages... and for a film fan, that's really what it's all about.