Movie Reviews - Paper Man & The Rum Diary

There is one word in common between these two movies, and why i watched them.

Stone.

Stoned - as in I am a big fan of Terry Gilliam's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and the idea of another of the late manic journalist Hunter S Thomson's novels being made into a film, starring Johnny Depp - who else - had me excited.

And Stone - Emily Jean Stone, or Emma Stone to most people.

Paper Man first -

The thing about Paper Man is that it is an independent film that had no marketing. A lot of films suffer this fate, where they deserve much more.

Directed by the Kieran and Michele Mulroney (husband and wife) it stars Jeff Daniels as a struggling writer, who moves to a beach community so he can get away from the city and focus on putting up a novel people will read, after his first novel sold almost nothing. Jeff Daniels wife is played by the sprightly Lisa Kudrow, who also co-starred with Emma Stone in the utterly brilliant Easy A. Emma Stone plays a 17 year old girl in the community, who is hired by Jeff Daniels as a babysitter - although he has no children, and Kieran Culkin plays Emma Stone's only friend. Ryan Reynolds plays Jeff Daniels imaginary friend Captain Excellent and looks ridiculous.

Paper Man echoes He was a Quiet Man, and similar to Frank Capello's film it is one i could relate to heavily, and one where certain scenes are exactly what i dread happening to me. These kind of scenes are hard to erase from memory, and the sad0-masochistic mind of mine likes such things. While Quiet Man ended with death, this film ends with life.

The film is all about the two main characters, Richard - player by Daniels, and Abby - played by Emma Stone. It is how two people who have been completely alone in their lives can form a bond, a friendship bordering on a relationship. (if this happens in real life, and i can get someone half as awesome as Emma Stone - sign me up). Richard is old, about 50, and he still has an imaginary friend. He is a writer, but feels his first book was terrible and feels he lacks creativity, and this leads to him being unable to write anthing of note at the start of his stay. He constantly emotes about being unable to do anything with his hands, and needs the help of Captain Excellent to make any decisions. Abby has an abusive boyfriend, but sticks with him - why? -and has a friend and confidant in Kieran Culkin, who is madly in love with her but she rejects him curtly. She has a past of sadness and loneliness as well which i wont reveal here.

Jeff Daniels does a great job, and his comedy is controlled. Emma Stone, however, puts in a performance that should have made people take notice before her star turn in Easy A. For an actor with no prior major film roles, this is first-rate. Her character tries to portray herself as someone who is mentally tough and confident, but as the movie moves ahead she slowly drops her guard. There are scenes which could so easily have been botched and looked artificial, but there is enough restraint on both counts, never over the top, never off the deep end. It isnt an easy role for anyone, let alone a novice but the then 19 year old shows signs of why she is one of the most in-demand actresses today. At the films end, i wanted to start it all over again, as it wasnt enough.

Critic sites havent rated this highly, and i wonder why. While it doesnt do anything out of the ordinary, it is well made, well scripted and well acted. That, is enough for me.

Recommended.

Try, Try, Trier

Lars von Trier is a sadistic fuck.

There is no other director who has consistently made movies that are so fuckin good. Tarantino’s Jackie Brown, Nolan’s Insomnia & Aronofsky’s Pi are movies which are not as good as their rest. Nearly every Von Trier film has had the same effect on me. For an hour after the film ends it is all you think about. Every film. I trust not one of these have you seen, and frankly they may not even be to your liking.

In my formative years as a movie watcher, i would never have watched a movie directed by a Dane and if reviews called it slow and ponderous.
Indeed, i downloaded and deleted Dogville a number of times before finally getting down to watching it.
I remember deciding that a movie rated 8 on iMDb, with Nicole Kidman, would be worth watching and getting on with it, and with the play-like setting and the catatonic characters and dialogue, i felt what i was watching was damn good. And then there was the ending. Spell binding (which i came to realise is a fixture in all von Trier movies).

Then there was Antichrist, a movie which won an Anti- award for its misogynist tone. While Dogville can be considered mainstream in some quarters, this is out of the league of most people. A whole movie where a nameless couple spend a few days of depravity in the forest after the loss of their child. Willem Dafoe is known, but Charlotte Gainsbourg’s no holds barred performance stole the show.

And that is a hallmark of all Von Trier films. They all have a central female character. Maybe that is why i am so fond of them. And there is the whole morose atmosphere. The sadness which no other film-maker can emanate from their films without being over the top. (And plus there tends to be copius amounts of nudity as well, a feature of these European directors.)

Bjork’s performance in Dancer in the Dark is the finest example of that - the sadness that is. Maybe the most depraved of his films, there are song and dance and happy faces which actually work in exactly the way he wants, the opposite. The joy on the face of the character makes you feel even more for her predicament.

Then you have the stellar debut of Emily Watson as a wide eyed nymphomaniac whose husband is paralysed in Breaking the Waves. Like Bjork, she earned acting nominations, and, like Bjork, should have won at least a Golden Globe.

Bryce Dallas Howard plays the same character Nicole Kidman played in Dogville in a sequel called Manderlay. The movie continues where Dogville left off, and Bryce Dallas Howards eases into the role, and you dont feel that Nicole Kidman was missed. The subject might be not to taste, with slavery the focal point. Performances all round are top notch, and while this film does not weigh up to the others it still isnt one you can dismiss as average, if you can dismiss a film as average.

Which brings me to the latest. Melancholia (you know it means sadness don’t you) is again a masterpiece. With the exception of Nicole Kidman, none of the lead actresses are beautiful. This one has Kirsten Dunst, who (until i saw this) i did not rate as an actress either & Charlotte Gainsbourg, who is definitely not going to feature in any askmen lists (is that a good enough benchmark anyway?) playing sisters Justine and Claire who don’t have a very solid relationship.

Justine is Melancholic and Claire is quite level-headed. The movie is split into two halves, the first is Justine’s wedding, (titled Justine) and the second is the events after (titled Claire). The Premise is that a rogue planet, Melancholia, is on course to fly past the earth, and some scientists suspect its path is so close that its pull will end in Earth being pulled towards it, resulting in the end of the world. The film deals ONLY with the relationship of the sisters btw. Far fetched i agree, but its in the portrayal of events rather than the story that matters.

Kirsten Dunst won best Actress at Cannes, but bizarrely isn’t nominated anywhere else. It is a career redefining role and one in which she shines, it is dark and reserved. Charlotte Gainsbourg is brilliant again & there is a fantastic support cast, although there isn’t much they do. It is about how these two sisters face normal life and how they change in the face of death. The best film Ive seen in 2011. Ahead of Drive, The Help, Midnight in Paris and even The Artist, which by the way, was a deserving winner at the Oscars.