Movie Review: Godzilla (2014)

by Tony Dayoub

What's the cinematic controversy of the week? Is it that the prestigious Cannes Film Festival chose to open with a crappy Grace Kelly biopic? Or that somehow the end of the superhero film might be nigh because The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is sputtering before it's even broke $200 million domestically? Maybe it's the mixed reaction to the design of the outfit Batfleck will be wearing when he goes up against the Man of Steel? No, what's got critics (and any audience that might give a shit) divided is the fact that everyone's favorite kaiju doesn't stroll onto the screen in the new Godzilla until about halfway into the 2-hour movie. Is this really a thing?

Movie Review: Jane Eyre (2011)

by Tony Dayoub

Compared to the couple of adaptations I've seen in the past (neither of which I remember well enough to dwell on) the most recent Jane Eyre best captures the spooky dread of Charlotte Brontë's Gothic novel. Between the previous adaptations' focus on the title character's early feminism and the romance which attracts many of the book's most ardent fans, the first thing to usually go is the story's eerie atmosphere. Not in this film version, though.

Movie Review: Never Let Me Go (2010)

by Tony Dayoub

Woefully underrepresented in the current film conversation, I believe Never Let Me Go will only grow in stature over the next few years. I saw this mournful film (based on a novel by Kazuo Ishiguro) last week, yet still find it haunting me in a way that brought to mind one of my favorite movies of the last ten years, Children of Men (2006). That's curious because while Children of Men presents a dystopic future, Never Let Me Go gives us a utopic past, or at least an alternate past.

Movie Review: Happy-Go-Lucky - Hawkins and Leigh Are Walking on Sunshine

Happy-Go-Lucky is a new comedy by the usually darkly sober realist, Mike Leigh (Secrets and Lies). The film, about a refreshingly happy schoolteacher named Poppy (Sally Hawkins) is curious in how unconventionally it creates story tension. Rather than internalize it within its main character, it externalizes it by contrasting Poppy's unrelenting good-natured spirit with a society plagued by cynicism. When we first meet Poppy, she is riding her bike through town while the film credits roll. She smiles a lot, waving at people we're certain she doesn't even know. She stops, locking her bike against a guardrail, and visits a children's bookstore. She tries striking up a conversation with the store clerk, who doesn't respond. She continues to try, while the befuddled clerk tries to figure out, as do we, what is wrong with this lady. She soon leaves the store, never giving in to the clerk's ill mood, only to find that her bike has been stolen. While most of us would lose our cool then, Poppy laughs about how she "never got the chance to say goodbye", and looks at it as an opportunity to learn to drive. Poppy's driving instructor, Scott (Eddie Marsan), is her antithesis, a dour conspiracy theorist that believes the world is run by Lucifer's agents, and that people of color are the devil's footsoldiers. It is in his scenes with her, that we are able to fully appreciate how difficult it is to sustain the happiness that she promotes. Scott is obsessive, bitter, devoutly religious, and a product of an unhappy childhood, we soon learn. As we see Poppy at her job, spying one boy bullying others, we connect the boy with Scott, realizing that Poppy is perfectly positioned to be someone who can actually change the future by professing her philosophy. While some may wonder whether this character may start to grate after 2 hours, Leigh is brilliantly able to get us past Poppy's surface to the person within. In one key scene in the film, Poppy encounters a homeless man. The man (Stanley Townsend) is an imposing bear, with a gentle demeanor that speaks in non-sequiturs. The scene is unusual because of the dark surroundings Poppy has ventured into, and for a moment, the viewer feels dislocated. It is as if the she is now in another of Leigh's darker films. The threat of this gentle bear suddenly losing his head and attacking Poppy is implied throughout, as he stands a little too close to her, changes directions often while he paces near her. It is then that one realizes how brave it is of Poppy to be so happy in a society where the danger of violence, physical or psychological, is always so close. And what a brave performance by Hawkins (Layer Cake). The role is easily one that could become a trap for an actor. She would be correct in fearing typecasting as a result of her strong performance in this role. But the complexity she brings to the performance, especially when she finally confronts Scott about his growing fearful intensity, is such that I think it will bring her Oscar accolades. Happy-Go-Lucky is playing at the 46th New York Film Festival, at 6:15 p.m. tonight, and noon tomorrow, at the Ziegfeld Theatre, 141 West 54th Street, New York, NY 10019, (212) 307-1862 Photo Credit: Simon Mein/ Courtesy of Miramax Films / Film Society of Lincoln Center

NYFF Day 1 - Notes on Happy-Go-Lucky and Voy a Explotar

by Tony Dayoub



NEW YORK - Today is opening night of the 46th New York Film Festival. Tonight's film is Laurent Cantet's Entre les murs, winner of the Palme D'Or at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival. It is definitely an auspicious premiere for one of the most important film festivals in America. Tickets are sold out, but you might still squeak in if you can brave the rain in the no-show line.


I caught a screening of the latest by Mike Leigh (Topsy-Turvy), Happy-Go-Lucky, featuring a fascinating performance by Sally Hawkins (Vera Drake). Her character, Poppy, is a rare one in cinema, an unfailingly happy and optimistic one. Despite all manner of obstacles modern society presents her with, she unswervingly manages to keep her spirits up. While at first, this may seem difficult to sustain in a film - after all, drama is about conflict - Leigh takes a character without internal tension, and externalizes it instead. The conflict is created by Poppy's optimism and the disparity it creates with her circle of friends, family, and in fact society itself. I highly recommend you catch this one in one of its two weekend showings, and I'll have a detailed review of it up by tomorrow morning.

Voy a Explotar is a Spanish language film by Mexican director Gerardo Naranjo. My feelings are mixed on this one. I like the two young non-actors that Naranjo cast as the leads, Juan Pablo de Santiago and Maria Deschamps. Deschamps in particular shows an introspective quality that goes beyond what inexperienced performers usually are capable of. Naranjo lets them down by telling a story that is distractingly uneven in tone. The movie's two young paramours hide from the world because of their anarchic desires to rebel. Against what? Everything, pretty much. But the broad manner in which their parents are treated by the filmmaker leaves the viewer unsure as to what exactly is trying to be said. My review of this one will be up on Sunday, in time for its first show that night.

Below is a schedule of the events through Sunday. More information can be found at the festival's web site.

EVENT TITLES
NYFF – Festival main slate film
OSH – NYFF Sidebar: In the Realm of Oshima
SE – Festival special event

SCREENING LOCATIONS
ZT – Ziegfeld Theatre, 54th St. between 6th and 7th Avenues
AFH – Avery Fisher Hall, Broadway and 65th Street
WRT – Walter Reade Theater, 65th St. between Amsterdam and Broadway, upper level
KP – Stanley H. Kaplan Penthouse, 65th St. between Amsterdam and Broadway, 10th Floor

Friday, Sept. 268:00 OPENING NIGHT: The Class, 128m (NYFF/AFH)
9:00 OPENING NIGHT: The Class (NYFF/ZT)

Saturday, Sept. 2711:00am Cruel Story of Youth, 96m (OSH/WRT)
12:00 Hunger, 96m (NYFF/ZT)
1:00 PANEL: Film Criticism in Crisis? (SE/WRT)
3:00 24 City, 112m (NYFF/ZT)
3:00 A Town of Love and Hope, 62m, with Diary of a Yunbogi Boy, 24m (OSH/WRT)
4:45 Night and Fog in Japan, 107m (OSH/WRT)
6:15 Happy-Go-Lucky, 118m (NYFF/ZT)
7:00 Diary of a Shinjuku Thief, 94m (OSH/WRT)
9:00 Pleasures of the Flesh, 90m (OSH/WRT)
9:30 Wendy and Lucy, 80m, with Cry Me a River, 19m (NYFF/ZT)
midnight In the Realm of the Senses, 110m (OSH/WRT)

Sunday, Sept. 2812:00 Happy-Go-Lucky (NYFF/ZT)
12:30 The Man Who Left His Will on Film, 94m (OSH/WRT)
2:30 The Sun’s Burial, 87m (OSH/WRT)
3:15 Wendy and Lucy, with Cry Me a River (NYFF/ZT)
4:00 HBO FILMS DIALOGUES: Jia Zhangke (SE/KP)
4:30 Empire of Passion, 106m (OSH/WRT)
6:15 Hunger (NYFF/ZT)
6:45 Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence, 122m (OSH/WRT)
9:00 I’m Gonna Explode, 106m, with This is Her, 12m (NYFF/ZT)
9:15 Taboo, 100m (OSH/WRT)

Happy-Go-Lucky Photo Credit: Simon Mein/ Courtesy of Miramax Films / Film Society of Lincoln Center

Voy a Explotar Photo Credit: Canana / Film Society of Lincoln Center