I’m all for watching movies in the hall; it’s the natural
order of things, and you can’t underestimate the pleasure of hurling abuse (or a
shoe) at someone who won’t turn off their cellphone. Yet, sometimes you just
know certain films aren’t going to make it to your friendly neighbourhood
multiplex. Here are four cases from last year: movies that are unlikely, for
one reason or another, to get a theatrical release in India, but are still worth
looking out for on DVD in 2013.
Magic Mike
Steven Soderbergh, it may be assumed, makes his
‘entertainers’ (the Ocean’s trilogy, Haywire)
in order to finance his more ‘serious’ films (Traffic, Che). If this is
true, it’s also worth mentioning that Soderbergh doesn’t condescend to, or have
contempt for, the multiplex audience. His popcorn films are made with precision
and humour, and filled with top-range actors who want a shot at an Oscar in one
of his prestige projects. Magic Mike
– his film about male strippers that’s based on the pre-fame experiences of its
star Channing Tatum – is, on the surface, a lively musical comedy. As he waits for
bank loans to materialise and finance his furniture designing ambitions, Mike
Lane (Tatum) makes his living working as a stripper at a club in Tampa,
Florida. In between all the bumping, grinding and general hell-raising, there
are a series of off-the-cuff conversations, mostly between Mike and Brooke (Cody
Horn), the level-headed sister of a new recruit he brings in. As they argue
about stereotypes and self-delusion, the movie becomes a cracked portrait of
its times, especially when Mike insists that he isn’t defined by his profession
or his lifestyle, a post-millennial sentiment if ever there were one.
Take This Waltz
After sharing a cab ride home from the airport, Toronto-dweller
Margot (Michelle Williams) realises that Daniel (Luke Kirby), an obnoxious
stranger she met on the flight, is her neighbour from across the street. As
time goes by, her distaste gives way to friendship and flirtation. Only problem
is, she’s already married. This is the strange story of Take This Waltz, the close-but-no-cigar film of the year. Director-screenwriter
Sarah Polley tries hard to replicate the rhythms of everyday speech, and the conversations
end up sounding rather silly at times (never more so than when Daniel verbally
seduces Margot in a coffee shop). Daniel’s profession too is offensively cute:
he’s a rickshaw-puller by choice. Yet, if you ignore the blind spots, there’s a
lot to admire in Take This Waltz. There are fantastic performances by
Michelle Williams and Seth Rogen (yes, that
Seth Rogen), and a touching turn by comedian Sarah Silverman. The production
design – tactile, almost breathing – is a thing of wonder. And there are two
unforgettable sequences, both set to the Buggles’ “Video Killed the Radio
Star”, that should go some way in ensuring that Williams is nominated for yet
another Oscar.
Killer Joe
The nastiest film of 2012 was made by a 77-year-old
director. William Friedkin (The French
Connection, The Exorcist) worked with Tracy Letts to adapt
the latter’s 1993 play about a killer-for-hire and his brush with an
unbelievably screwed-up Texan family. When a drug dealer desperate for money
hires ‘Killer Joe’ Cooper to bump off his mother for insurance money, he sets
into motion a series of events that’ll violently alter the lives of his
dim-witted father, foul-mouthed stepmother and dreamy sister, whom Joe keeps as
a ‘retainer’. It’s sickeningly violent and very disturbing, even if you’re
familiar with Letts’ perversely funny style (he wrote the Pulitzer-winning play
August: Osage County). Watch out for Matthew
McConaughey, who, as Killer Joe, drops his easy-going shtick and creates a
character with all the hypnotic menace and unpredictability of a rattlesnake.
Ruby Sparks
This sophomore effort by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris (Little Miss Sunshine) would have released in theatres here
had it starred Katherine Heigl and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and not Zoe Kazan and
Paul Dano. Ruby Sparks is a smart riff
on the Greek legend of Pygmalion, in which an artist falls in love with his own
creation. The hysteria surrounding his Salinger-like debut is yet to fade, but novelist
Calvin Weir-Fields spends his days battling writer’s block and a host of
neuroses. One day, he writes about a girl who’s been appearing in his dreams,
and the words start to flow. He’s surprised, but not as surprised as when he
wakes up one morning to find Ruby Sparks, his creation, alive and in love with
him. He soon discovers that he can dictate what Ruby feels by writing about
her, which leads to an unsettling second half that alternates between dark comedy
and psychological drama. Though Kazan’s screenplay doesn’t push the point, Ruby
could be anyone who’s being controlled, physically, artistically or emotionally.
This piece appeared in the December issue of Man's World.
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