American Beauty

American Beauty

Sam Mendes (1999)

There is no end of existent praise for this film, and I tremble to add to it. Color palette, characters, dialogue, acting, direction, story—all first rate. This is the first movie I ever watched and thought “wow, that's a perfect movie.” Not only can I find no actual fault in it, but there is no bad or unfinished taste left in my mouth from it. Maybe a bit calculated in feel, but even that fits with the film's being from the protagonist's post-death point of view.

What's neat is that, originally, this death was meant to be the focus of a court room drama. Again, set post death, from his perspective, but with a court room frame. The stoner kid and his camera on trial for the murder. I'm glad they went without it. Without, there is a lovely ambiguity and no chance for easy answers or for the entire affair being reduced to a game of clue and/or episode CSI.

Edited aşa, we are presented with our narrator and a vivid cast of secondary characters who add to each other and interact seamlessly. Many movies have tried pulling this off and few succeed. Most end in a series of vignettes that somehow tie together, like Love Actually or Babel. Time gets chopped up evenly on the storyboard, so the characters balance out—time wise. So, the audience is supposed to sympathize with all of them... equally...

Nice sentiment, whatever.

Many movies, like Across the Universe, try pulling off the one story from different perspectives, or a small community interacting, but only American Beauty realistically gives all its secondary characters enough weight and depth that they could support their own full length stories easily.

But that would be moot if the courtroom had been allowed to prevail.

As it is, we just have a narration of the last year of Lester's, Everyman's, life circa 1997. If we'd opened with a courtroom, the drama would focus on the verdict, but this way the drama is subsumed so that when scenes where violence happens that violence is all the more harsh. A plate of asparagus hitting a wall is hardly tense if compared with the possibility of some kid's brain frying for our entertainment/justice. Everyman's life would be mundane except for his death, but this way the fascination in an ascent to self discovery.

Similarly, the growth of the supporting characters is allowed to flourish without a courtroom. American Beauty, though ending with the death of our protagonist, churns up the possibilities of life and stirs the viewer's own desire for sublime within the ordinary. Besides, the children of the doomed have plans for their life! If the courtroom had been allowed to prevail, we would no doubt see these plans thwarted and therefore end on less uplifting note.

Of the three children in question, the daughter's growth, is probably the most important for the viewer. As the actual spawn of the dead protagonist it is her human responsibility to carry on his work. Thankfully, Ball made another crucial choice: he did not hit us over the head with this symbol. No, she, like every teenager, hates her parents. Furthermore, her actions hinge on so many different people's opinions of her that, while the courtroom scenario would allow her more screen-time (being the girlfriend of the “murderer”) the whole fiasco would stunt all the blushing promise of growth she shows when with him. In the scene with the famous plastic bag, she doesn't necessarily see the beauty he does in the bag, but the beauty in him for his simple and sublime love of the world. What Lester achieves just before death, she achieves – albeit vicariously – appreciation of the sublime in the mundane before leaving home to fulfill it.

The daughter's catalyst, Ricky, is a rather dashing allegory for turn of the century go-getters. Highly motivated both to appear perfect to parents and to make it in the world as yourself – freak or whatever – by whatever means necessary. It probably goes without saying that I have a giant crush on this character. As a person, he doesn't grow. This is probably why he is, bizarrely, the center about which this glorious film tilts. By staying still and letting other people meet him, he forces the whole machine a-lurchin'. Finally he makes a move for himself and delivers the crux of drama for both the courtroom version (being the one left holding the bag^) and the ambiguous version (taking the daughter off to freak central New York).

If Ricky were accused of murder, Carolyn's, the wife's, role would become wormish and all over despicable, rather than just confused and mildly hysterical. She is an obvious suspect, and her character, at the time of murder, is motivated to do nothing but cover the truth of every one of her actions. From the very beginning, except two quick shots, she is nothing but fake to everyone she interacts with. Getting Nailed by the King, and a small gasp just before Lester gets beer on her $4,000 sofa upholstered in Italian silk. These are minute and quickly covered up. Otherwise her pure self is expressed through guttural screams in private, and are quickly reprimanded and suppressed. Thus, if she were to be confronted as a witness she would only squirm and rely on her facade self. Without the courtroom, she is released from the forced growth of her little motivational tapes, thus sent in a different direction.

Lolita's^Ω role would be swallowed and reduced to tertiary rather than secondary if the courtroom reigned. As it is she acts as the perfect foil for daughter's role and the driving force of the protagonist's. However, because of shots of her washing her face, and crying on the stairs, we see her unstaged actions and therefore glimpse her motivation. With the addition of the courtroom, she'd be simply a witness, and an unreliable one at that. As an unreliable witness her character would lose any dignity regained by the soda/sandwich discussion, and be doomed to ridiculousness.

Most insignificant out of the lot would be Ricky's parents. Though they have small amounts of screen time, they are Lester and Carolyn's dysfunctional alter-egos. They would only be included in the trial as Ricky's parents. I doubt the fathers role as actual killer would be brought to light. This is infinitely depressing from every angle. The movie would suck. Totchka.

Last, but not least, the super cute gay couple that are Lester and Carolyn's hyper-functional alter-egos. They'd be even less of characters than they already are. They'd be passing thoughts, and trivialized baubles. As it is, they are clearly the hyper-functional end to suburban life. And that is nothing but awesome to me.

There you have it, American Beauty, not Crime Scene Investigation: Suburban Melodrama.

The Fall

The Fall

Tarsem (2006)

Mr. Ebert says you should watch this movie just because it exists. Mr. Wilde says that art exists only for this reason. As an addict of aesthetics, especially when they agree with my own sensibilities, this movie is far and away the most beautiful thing created in the last ten years. Actually, I'll get back to you on whether its the most beautiful thing from the last century. What comes close? Hmmm... a couple Picassos, Maybe some Miles Davis. Henry Fonda's face? Well, if you combined these things and added the cutest child ever to act and strung them into a complexly plotted and tightly executed conglomeration of sight and sound, you'd get Tarsem's movie here.

Plot: girl breaks arm picking oranges in orange county. Hospitalized. Man paralyzes himself jumping from a moving train to horseback as he is a stuntman in early Hollywood. Hospitalized. When bones are broken and people are confined, unlikely friendships form and stories are told. The movie follows two plots: the story that he tells her and the story of their interactions with various doctors, nurses, priests, other patients... As the two plots intertwine, we learn more about each of their lives. As with all friendships, the more we learn of each character, the more complex plot. That is, he decides to commit suicide and enlists her in smuggling him morphine pills.

I mean, you just don't get more original or interesting or complex than that!

But! Its awesome does not end there!

Filmed in over 20 countries with a minimal of computer imaging, The Fall questions the power of imagination in a time period where people decided that moving pictures were both the new life and ultimate death of imagination. While it makes no effort to assert philosophy, The Fall exudes simple, childlike morality which is actually refreshing in our super gray world of ambiguity. What is bad? What is wrong? Manipulating children into aiding suicide: its bad, its wrong, it may be the ultimate bad wrong you can exert with your power as an adult. What is selfish and useless? Suicide. Period.

Tarsem sees little point lollygagging about thought-heavy things once these black and white morals are dealt with. Because of its moral simplicity the story becomes doubly potent and heart breaking—you as viewer are sucked into the child's earnest perspective, pretty much regardless of how cynical you may think you are.

To make this all the more realistic, our lead actress, Cantica Untaru, is a young Romanian lass who actually barely acts. She was told “this is a movie set, this is your co-star, this is the story.” Beyond that, most is ad-libbed. Her costar, Lee Pace, who I hope to see in many more things, knew what he had to say and where the story had to go, but beyond that... They even went so far as to not let him out of character the whole time so they were constantly interacting, as his character is paralyzed from the waist down, this includes him being in a wheel chair for the whole of filming. It comes through most poignantly. Love it.

Lemme see... Special effects are minimalist. It's one of the main appeals of the film as a whole. That fade from butterfly to island? Done the old fashioned way-with splicing of gelatin, not with photo-shop. I don't even want to try and comprehend how long it took them to set up the one desert shot that segues between the marriage and the death sentence scenes. Colors are all more vivid and enhanced, but not annoyingly so. Wash out filters are only used subtly, most glaringly in the last scene where Orange County and Alexandra's experience of it are nostalgia-ized with a sepia hue, but again, its acceptably subtle. Black and white is used only because it has to be in the plot. Slow motion is used perfectly – not too much. Supporting cast, supports. Everything that seems out of place or odd is only as such because it fits the mind of an 8 year old in a foreign country imagining a story being told to her by an almost stranger.

When you're finished watching this the first time, you are nothing but stunned. Done the second, you start thinking about it, realize there's nothing to think about beyond the mastery of the film-making itself. Every detail your over analytical mind tries to pick apart and apply some obscure philosopher to just points back to the plot. Third watching, you start wondering how the hell long the story boarding must have taken.

Yea.

Damn.