Babel

6/4/10 Babel represents the final entry in Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's so called trilogy. All three films are hyperlink films, meaning that they contain multiple characters who are linked with a plot that is weaved back and forth through time. Babel is his most successful and most ambitious work to date and it tells the story of how four seemingly unconnected groups of people are connected through one event and how each group struggles with a language barrier: a man trying to find aid for his injured wife in a foreign country, a Mexican woman trying to explain an awkward situation to border control, and a deaf Japanese girl struggling with a tragedy. The film is beautifully shot and well acted with Brad Pitt standing out in a talented cast. However, it is unsuccessful at pulling these four threads together and maintaining its theme. I felt I was watching four different albeit well-made stories, which were not at all related by plot nor theme. Also, and again the hyperlink movie has become tiresome and I think that although Inarritu has established himself with this genre, that he has done all he can with it. He recently debuted his new film at Cannes with great success and I look forward to that film with great interest.

*** out of ****

2/2/17 While rewatching Babel, it is intriguing for awhile but goes on way too long with too many needless, protracted sequences and phony, pretentious dramatics and political correctness ultimately ruling the day while the audience is supposed to ooh and ahh about the quasi interconnectedness of the screenplay.

** out of ****

The Revenant

From an unlikely true to life account, a member of a trapping party (Leonardo DiCaprio) in the uncharted west finds himself separated from his group and alone in a grizzly den where he is unsparingly attacked by the mother. He is then betrayed by a member of his camp (Tom Hardy) who, after bamboozling the other explorers, steals his rifle, slays his son, and leaves him near death in an unforgiving wilderness. The Revenant is ambitious, magnificent, ferocious and astounding filmmaking that seeks to add another revisionary chapter to the Western. Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu is a director who can often come off as highfalutin and pretentious but always aims big and here, with transcendent, Malick-like cinematography, deftly hits his mark. Leo's performance is one of sheer will, playing a character who ran a virtual death gauntlet, and whose many recreations were purportedly performed without a double. Hardy doesn't really reveal any new tricks but puts his acute grumbling intensity to good use and Domhnall Gleeson and Will Poulter are fine in support.  My only complaint is that, for such a lengthy picture, some of the wind comes out of the film's sails in its middle section and ambiguous cliches of modern violent epics seem to take its place.

*** 1/2 out of ****

side rant: i feel like there is something troubling with a certain faction dismissing this movie as a grandiose masculine fantasy when that same camp will likely cheer along with the cruel sadism and wanton senselessness of The Hateful Eight.

Birdman

A has been movie mega-star (Michael Keaton), haunted by the spirit of his onscreen superhero alter ego, is mounting a comeback in the form of a theatrical presentation of a Raymond Carver short story which he is ambitiously adapting, directing and starring in. In addition to the burdens these tasks carry, he must also contend with his critical daughter/assistant (Emma Stone), a wound tight stage manager and best friend (Zach Galifianakis), an insecure star (Naomi Watts), a needy girlfriend (Andrea Riseborough), a concerned ex-wife (Amy Ryan), a Times journalist bent on trashing him, and a highly regarded, egotistical, last minute acting replacement (Ed Norton) who holds the ex-matinee idol in low esteem. Birdman is an acute change of pace for director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu from the weighty, multi-plot converging films for which he's become known (Babel, Amores Perros) and features a bravura, self-deprecating performance from Keaton. Unfortunately, the rest of the production comes off as unfunny and sanctimonious with competent actors putting their best foot forward with an inept and unworthy script (by Inarritu and three others). Additionally, the fantasy sequences offer little, wither proving ineffective or strange for strange's sake and Emmanuel Lubezki's camerawork, which is designed to make over 95% of the movie seem like one continuous take, sadly comes off as little more than a gimmick.

** out of ****

Biutiful

The title is misleading. Or at least it certainly doesn't apply to most aspects of Uxbal's life. He is currently the proprietor of two enterprises, one where he has African immigrants dealing drugs in the streets, the other of which he is profiting off of the employment of illegal Chinese immigrants. He is also a single father and finding ways to cope with the irrational manic depressive mother of his children who is also sleeping with his brother.  And he is dying of bone cancer. There is some beauty (biuty?) in his life and it is with his children whom he holds dearly, and hopes to establish a relationship with, which is something that he never had with his own parents. Biutiful is bleak material and it isn't a shock that it is directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu, whose films are often somber. Inarritu is a director with fine technique who knows how to put a film together, but here again his self-importance gets in the way and the film comes off as heavy handed. This is his first film to be told from a linear timeline and the script seems like it is lacking material. Although it is not a wristwatch checking movie, there is not enough here to justify its 2.5 hour running length, though I could watch Javier Bardem for hours on end. Here, sporting a mullet and looking exhausted, he finds the right notes in what ultimately is a nuanced performance. He carries this bleak film along.