Hannah Arendt – 2.5

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What is it with cigarettes and movies? Although smoking has not been a part of “the world I live in” for 40 years or more, 80% of the movies I see have a scene with a character who lights up. Is this the only way to tell us we are in the 1950s, or that someone is stressed, or bored, or – in the case of Hannah Arendt – is “thinking”? And since this movie is all about “thinking,” there is nary a scene that does not involve Hannah and/or other characters lighting up or just lying there, puffing away. Even Mr. Shawn gets in on the act. The cigarette intrusions got to be quite distracting, not that there was that much to distract from. The American characters were all portrayed as a German director would portray them, which added a farcical element to what strived to be a deeply philosophical film. The crux of the trouble, though, was that the story turned on Arendt’s alleged condemnation of Jewish leaders in connection with the Holocaust without indicating where this theory came from. Thus, we had to weigh the pros and cons of this argument without any underlying facts. What did come through – also interestingly from the German director – was the rabid irrationality of the Jewish community, in Israel and America, an attitude that persists in the so-called “Jewish lobby” today with similar consequences. Barbara Sukowa gave a serious performance, smoking aside, but the actors around her came across as amateurs.

Post Tenebras Lux – 7.8

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Compellingly strange or strangely compelling, this Mexican film at the Walker Art Center was like a puzzle without an answer that was still fun to do. Just as all paintings needn’t be realistic, not all movies need to make narrative sense. Here, one discrete scene followed another – some were past, some present, some imaginary – but all involved the same characters, whom we came to know and even care about. Carlos Reygado’s direction evoked the magical realism of Garcia Marquez and the scenes all fit to create an often beautiful tapestry. The mysteries of Upstream Color were often just annoying; here they were lyrical.

Caesar Must Die – 8

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The power and brilliance of Shakespeare has never, for me, shone more brightly than in this semi-documentary of a prison production of Julias Caesar. Italian criminals brought a peculiar resonance to the depiction of Roman senators, and the fact that they looked like people I know (Richard Blake as Cassius?) made the message even more timeless and universal. What stood out were Shakespeare’s words and psychological insights. The dialogue and scenes that weren’t from the play came across as banal, which only made Shakespeare’s contribution stand out all the more. This stands alongside Ralph Fiennes’ Coriolanus as the best modern Shakespeare I have come across.

Upstream Color – 4

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I learned more from hearing director/actor/producer Shane Carruth comment after the movie than I did from watching it. As I watched larva being implanted, I felt I was in a Matthew Barney art-house special. Nor could I make much sense of what followed, although the characters were compelling in a way, if you like lost souls. The soundtrack was too loud and portentous, but there was an artistic vision at work. I suppose Hieronymous Bosch got some bad reviews, as well.

Mud – 7.9

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A Huck Finn boy’s adventure story, in which the messy adult world is viewed, but not quite understood, by 14-year-old Ellis and his best friend Neckbone. The plot hangs together neatly – too neatly for some, satisfyingly for me – and the setting is as real as Beasts of the Southern Wild was fanciful. My only problem was having the prissy, pretty Matthew McConaughey in the title role; a plainer, rougher actor would’ve been better. And then, too, I might not have felt so cheated by the ending. Reese Witherspoon, on the other hand, was wonderful. But they are the side attractions: it is Tye Sheridan and his amazing portrayal of a certain stage of adolescence that is the movie’s wonder.

42 – 7

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Remember the Landmark Series of books – great events in history written (well) at a 6th-grade level? This could have been a movie version of one of those books, describing breaking the color barrier in Major League Baseball. It did make me wonder about the reality of the events depicted, in a more nuanced world where all the good guys didn’t go to the Hall of Fame and all the bad guys weren’t fired, or traded to Pittsburgh. All the melodrama did bring tears to my eyes and there were nice touches: Harrison Ford channeling his inner Daniel Day-Lewis to portray Branch Rickey, and Hamish Linklater providing good-guy Ralph Branca with a new legacy, 60 years after his home-run pitch to Bobby Thomson. As for the baseball scenes, you wonder how Jackie Robinson ever stole a base if he didn’t take off until the pitch had been delivered.

Marina Abramovic: The Artist is Present – 8

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Very cool. I don’t know if what she does is “art” or “theater,” or maybe “performance art” is something in between, but what matters for this film is how well we get to know Marina Abramovic, how open she is to the filmmakers and how she works her way into our hearts. I was skeptical going in but cried at the end. As for the signature performance piece at MoMA, where she sits still in a chair facing a procession of audience members, I can best compare it to a living self-portrait. Think of sitting across from Durer or Rembrandt for ten minutes, staring into those eyes.

The Place Beyond the Pines – 7.9

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The most notable aspect of this film was its structure, which Siri didn’t like but which I admired for its originality: the movie’s first half was about the Ryan Gosling character; the movie’s second half was about the Bradley Cooper character; and the third half, a separate coda 15 years later, was about their respective sons. Gosling and Cooper, both excellent, had to make life-changing decisions based on changed circumstances in their lives. The kids’ decisions were less convincing, perhaps because we didn’t see what their previous 15 years were like. Where did A.J. come up with his Elvis hairdo and inner-city accent? And why, after the Sopranos, would anyone call their kid “A.J.”? As far as names go, where was the place beyond the pines, anyway? Ray Liota and Eva Mendes were special treats in an intense film with one fine touch after another.

Spring Breakers – 3

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It was hard to find a socially redeeming quality in this film about sex, drugs and violence on spring break in Florida, and despite thinking long and hard I failed. Nothing was realistic, so okay, maybe this is some kind of American magic realism. Except there was no magic. Just a lot of posing. James Franco was unattractive, the blond girls were unconvincingly bad, the plot was two sentences on a napkin and somehow, everyone had to take their top off except for our stars. I will say that the rowdy crowd in the theater was, nevertheless, mesmerized.

The Sapphires – 7

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What’s not to like in a film about four young Aborigines overcoming racism, entertaining our troops in Vietnam, finding love and singing classic Motown tunes under the tutelage of the loveable Chris O’Dowd, reprising his character in Bridesmaids? Well, lack of originality for one thing. Every plot development screamed “formula,” and there was a sense of amateurism accompanying the inauthenticity. In short, it would’ve been much better to discover this film at the SBIFF, where it first played in Santa Barbara.