Today's Review: Quand on a 17 Ans

I've fallen a little bit behind on updating my blog with my latest reviews. Let's see whether I can undo some of the damage.

Quand on a 17 ans - recensie

This film, which in English speaking territories is released under the title Being 17, at first has all the hallmarks of your typical teenage drama. There's two seventeen year old boys and a fair bit of animosity between them. However, where usually there's girls or social status involved in explaining said strife, that is not the case here. In fact, there's no particular cause for their mutual dislike at all, it's just there. So we can imagine the horror on the one boy's face when his mother invites the other to come live with them. It's a generous but odd decision, considering their rivalry is there for everybody to see. It's not the oddest choice Quand on a 17 ans makes, since the intention of this film is showing the start of a homosexual relationship. You'll have a tough time believing this film, which takes place over a period of about 18 months, will see the relation between the boys change from mutual hatred and the occasional bit of violence to underscore that feeling, to genuine, physical affection between the pair.

Director André Téchiné - himself a gay man - is no stranger to both gay drama and teen angst. However, he felt the subject material needed the aid of writer Céline Sciamma to flesh the characters out to their best extent. Sciamma recently came off the teen drama Girlhood, which also showed rough relationships between youngsters (though all of them girls in that particular case), but despite the 37 year difference in age between herself and her director, she proves a right addition to make the teen dialogue that much more snappy and convincing. Aided by strong, not to mention daring, performances from both the young actors and their more experienced counterparts, the script goes a long way to make the unlikely transformation from one state of affairs to the other feel that much more real. Cinematography and editing do their bit as the movie moves from a snowy, cold opening to a warm and colourful close in summer, as a perfect (but rather obvious) metaphor for the change in teen moods.

Nevertheless, for the audience it's still a far cry from hate to love (especially a type of love this deeply felt) in just under two hours time. All the ingredients are there to make us convince this is transpiring, but it just moves too fast to make us feel it with the two main characters. It has the pretention, conscious or unconscious, of an emotional epic the likes of La Vie D'Adele (better known as Blue is the Warmest Colour in many regions), but unlike that wonderful film, it just cuts the time necessary to make it equally emotionally compelling for us by a third. We cannot help but feel things are rushed, even though the movie cannot be accused of being fast paced. A change in teen nature of this magnitude simply begs more illustration for full emotional immersion, it seems.

Today's Review: In the Name Of

I did this review of a Polish movie (original title: W Imie...) for MovieScene last week:

http://www.moviescene.nl/p/155980/in_the_name_of_-_recensie

I found it a fairly decent arthouse flick, which revealed more novel information about the relation between religion and (homo)sexuality in Poland specifically than in general, as this theme has been explored (not to mention parodied) before. The main component in its favour was the strong and thoroughly compelling performance of its main actor, Andrzej Chyra, who delivered a veritable tour-de-force in his role as a talented country priest torn by his devout Roman-Catholic beliefs and his natural, human yearning for love. It wasn't even about him being gay, that was rather secondary to be honest. Of course, if he was interested in female companionship it would have been even less innovative, as that topic has been addressed in cinema hundreds of times before. The homosexual aspect was important mostly for showing just how ordinary gay people are to the general Polish audience, as yet not so convinced of that fact I hear. For a Dutch audience, that element of the film was hardly an eye opening notion. However, the premise of a homosexually frustrated priest working with underage boys in the countryside without deteriorating into sensational stories of sexual abuse in church circles is a refreshing one. Not every homosexual priest is a child molester, ya know. Thanks for informing and comforting us on that front, Malgorzata Szumowska.

Today's Mini-Review: Behind the Candelabra

Behind the Candelabra: ***/*****, or 7/10

After having immersed himself in one world of extreme showmanship and male relations in Magic Mike, Steven Soderbergh tells another, not quite so dissimilar version of the same topic when he tackles the love life of Liberace in Behind the Candelabra. Based on the autobiographical novel by Scott Thorson (played in this movie by Matt Damon), Soderbergh explores the stormy six year relationship, starting in 1977, between the famed pianist – already an older man at that time – and the much younger man who he sweeps into his world of excess. A naive boy uncomfortable with a life of glamour and glitter, you'd think Thorson knows better than to simply accept Liberace's invitation into his effusive lifestyle, but the call of adventure and glory is too much for any young adult to ignore. What starts as a seemingly genuine love affair between the flamboyant musician and his younger bisexual paramour generally devolves into an untenable situation as Thorson, victim to various cosmetic whims of what is basically his benefactor, fears himself just a fling, easily replaced if Liberace so desires. Eventually their relationship unravels and tragedy ensues. Even more so in later years, long after the legal dust has settled between them, as Liberace suffers from AIDS and once again calls on his former romantic partner for reaching an understanding. It may be Thorson's story, but thanks to a fabulous performance by Michael Douglas (which has unmistakably written 'Academy Award' all over it), no quarter is given to the fact that this is Liberace's movie. The historical character drives every scene from the get-go, even when not physically present, while Douglas dominates every sequence with his superb acting which all too carefully balances character and caricaturism. Despite being an insufferable, arrogant and commandeering presence, often driving Thorson to extremes for his own pleasure, there's also a definite poignancy and heart to Liberace as he searches for someone to hold on to during all the madness of his life as a totally over-the-top artist. Douglas successfully makes you love and hate Liberace. Damon, though certainly not lacking the necessary chemistry duelling this opponent and holding his own when it matters, is unsurprisingly outstaged at all times, but this is naturally unavoidable as you can't outshine the likes of Liberace and Soderbergh knows better than to have his supporting cast try to do just that. Nevertheless, Damon proves as brave as Douglas when it comes to making the expression in the flesh of the love between Liberace and Thorson feel convincing. Though dealing with heavy themes of lust, betrayal and passion gone awry, Soderbergh isn't afraid to employ a lighter tone for much of the film, making us enjoy Liberace's various campy acts as much as his contemporary audience did, while also relaying the sheer absurdity of a man who was so clearly gay, but who vividly denied his nature at every turn to the point of suing people who openly commented on his homosexuality: if you watch Douglas' playing the part it seems incredulous people ever actually believed such continuous denials. The greatest fun the movie provides comes with courtesy from Rob Lowe playing Liberace's plastic surgeon, who is commisioned to turn Thorson into a young duplicate of the celeb. Here the joy gradually turns to disgust (and not just because of several explicit surgery shots!) as Thorson all too easily drops his resistance to please his lover who's asking things of him no sane human being would allow, with detrimental results to his face and in the longer run, his mental health. However, it was perfectly clear from the start the relationship between the two was doomed to failure and would only cause harm. In principle, Behind the Candelabra is no different in any way from hundreds of other films dealing with an inexperienced younger person who is drawn into a world of fame and passion which turns out a web of lies in which he is devoured unless he breaks free and returns to his roots: in fact, Magic Mike's plot line was similar in all too many ways. However, neither Mike nor all those other films in the same veign had the benefit from Michael Douglas' delightful but ultimately heartbreaking performance, which makes up for any of such narrative predictabilities. Douglas delivers, as Liberace lives again.

Today's Review: Do Not Disturb

 

Here's another review I wrote for MovieScene this week:

http://www.moviescene.nl/p/148416/do_not_disturb_-_recensie

I wanted to like this movie, but it didn't make it easy for me to do so. It wasn't until the end that I found it to be truly deserving of the genre description 'comedy', by which time it was kinda too late anyway. A French remake of an American movie is also kinda odd: it's usually the other way. Currently, Intouchables and Das Leben der Anderen are undergoing such treatment, only because Americans can't be bothered to read subtitles. It seems the same is true for the French. Maybe the original movie, Humpday, simply didn't get a French dubbed release. It was a small indie movie after all, so it's not inconceivable. But this remake truly proves that "us" Europeans are no better than those Yanks when it comes to remaking movies for our own convenience. We'd do well to remember that every time we complain about the Americans running off with yet another one of "our" Euro-classics. And hey, sometimes those do work! Just look at Let Me In and The Girl with the Dargon Tattoo, good remakes both, though like any remake, not really needed in the overall scheme of things, especially if you're willing to sit through a language you're unfamiliar with. You could call Do Not Disturb a good remake, since it follows the original Humpday plot line so closely. However, in that case you ought to say Humpday just isn't a terrific movie...

Brüno

Rating: ***/*****, or 6/10

Sacha Baron Cohen mindlessly repeats his success of Borat by appropriating the same type of narrative set-up to his other infamous character, the excessively explicitly gay German fashion designer Brüno. First introducing Brüno in his natural environment at a fashion show turned awry, he's taken out of his element when banned from the fashion industry, after which his lover leaves him and he travels to America to become famous once more, insulting most conceivable minorities in the process in a series of loosely attached sketches. Whereas this approach led to great results in Borat, in the case of Brüno it leads to a distinct feeling of 'been there, done that'. What's more, the cheap gay jokes simply are not as original or as outrageous as Borat's repertoire and many miss their mark. However, there's still plenty to enjoy for at least one decent watch, including Brüno adopting a coloured baby he names O.J., visiting a swinger club to take advise on how to become straight and interviewing parents all too eager to let their child break through in show business about a role for their kids in a scene involving heavy antiquated machinery and Nazi uniforms. Filled with every thinkable cliché involving homosexuals, a lot of them simply cringy worthy, gay people had best ignore this flick.

Starring: Sacha Baron Cohen, Gustaf Hammarsten, Clifford Baňagale

Directed by Larry Charles

USA: Universal Pictures, 2009