Into The Wild (2007)

Chris McCandless: Some people feel they don't deserve love. They walk away quietly into empty spaces, trying to close the gaps of the past.

If I don't count any world leaders or people of higher importance, no two other characters have fascinated me more than "Pink" from Roger Water's magnum opus, The Wall, and Chris McCandless, a 24-year old adventurer who walked into the wild and to his subsequent death. The former was obviously a fictional character loosely based on Roger Water's own life. The latter, of course, generates more interest as I have always tried to understand what could trigger a high-achieving 22-year old graduate from Emory University to set off into the unknown in search of truth. When I had watched the movie first in 2008, I was blindly in support of everything he felt and said, even to the point of fighting for him on discussion forums and being offensive towards anyone who'd suggest hints of schizophrenia in his personality.

Five years later, I don't remember how many times I have watched this movie, while also having the opportunity to read Jon Krakauer's book on which this movie is based. Probably like his parents, I have mellowed down too in my opinions and I have no judgments to pass on who was right and who was wrong. As always, each one has his or her own reasons. Probably the sanest and most objective recounting of his story in the movie seems to be from his sister, Carine (Jena Malone).

The movie has a very dramatic start to it with Chris (Emile Hirsch) calling out to his mother (Marcia Gay Harden) for help in the final moments of his life. As the movie sets into a flashback, we see Chris's graduation day ceremony and the subsequent lunch meeting with his sister and parents. Chris's dad (William Hurt) comes across as the controlling type who is fixated on how one carries himself in public. When he suggests buying Chris a new car, it sets off an irritation in Chris for what he thinks is his parents' obsession with materialism and the image they portray in society. Even though he knows his grades are strong enough to get him into Harvard Law School, he sets off to pursue his dream of exploring Alaska and in his characteristic style, burns all the money he has and gives away $25,000 to a charity before leaving. Throughout his journey, he meets some interesting people, specially Jan (Catherine Keener), Rainey (Brian Dierker), Wayne (Vince Vaughn) ,Tracy (Kristen Stewart) and Mr. Franz (Hal Holbrook). We see a special bonding between Chris and Jan, who probably brings out  a longing in Chris for a mother he never had. Wayne and Rainey both see in Chris a hatred for his parents and try to suggest he could be less harsh on them since he is "still a kid". Tracy is a sweet 16-year old who seems infatuated with Chris from the very moment she sees him, although Chris, very rightly, doesn't encourage anything beyond a friendship. Ron Franz is a retired military guy who has turned around his life after wasting it away on alcohol following the death of his wife and son. There's again a special relationship between the two and they both have a thing or two to teach one another.

We learn from Carine's narration of their father's "other" family which technically makes these children bastards and his wife a mistress. As months pass and his parents and sister don't hear from Chris, they slowly start to lose hope and we see his parents are not anymore what we were earlier made to believe. As in Carine's narration we learn-

"She convinces herself it’s Chris, that it’s her son when she passes a stray. And I feel for the mother in her. Instincts that seem to sense the threat of a loss, so huge and irrevocable. I began to wonder if I can understand all that Chris is saying any longer. And I catch myself and remember that these are not the parents he grew up with, but people softened by the forced reflection that comes with loss. Still, everything Chris is saying has to be said. I still trust him that everything he is doing has to be done."

In the final moments we see a change in Chris too - someone who  had left civilization for what he detested and thought you don't need human relationships to be happy is finally feeling "scared and lonely". Probably his final words were "Happiness only real when shared" as he writes it on one of his books. Though I still strongly disagree with people who suggest that he had set off on a path of self-destruction. His death was solely from a misreading of a wild plants guide where he mistakenly ingests a poisonous plant while thinking it to be edible. Although he survived it, his condition weakened and finally led to starvation and death. His trip to Alaska wasn't about running away from life, but one of finding meaning and happiness. Disillusioned probably - sometimes I wonder if being too well-read at such a young age was a curse, for what could a 22-year old really would have known and understood from reading Tolstoy and Thoreau?

Nevertheless, it's not something for us to judge. It was a story that needed to be told, and thanks to Jon Krakauer and Sean Penn, people everywhere now know who Chris was. His story has polarized people into camps on whether he deserved the attention he received and whether he should be made into a hero. Hero or not, he was different and deserves respect.

Rating: 9/10

P.S. - An additional highlight of the movie is the soundtrack from Eddie Vedder. The "poetry" that Vedder has created here sets him apart from being just another rock-star and places him, only if momentarily, along the ranks of Roger Waters, David Gilmour or Jim Morrison. This is not an exaggeration.

Seven Psychopaths (2012)

Hans: As Gandhi said....
Billy: Oh, you two..if it ain't for Gandhi....Jesus Christ....
Hans: An eye for eye leaves the whole world blind and I believe that whole-heartedly
Billy: No it doesn't. There would be one guy left with one eye. How's the last blind guy gona take out the eye of the last guy left? he's still got one eye...all that guy has to do is run away and hide behind a bush. Gandhi was wrong. Just that nobody's got the balls to come out and say it

Marty (Colin Farell) is a struggling writer who has hit a writer's block after deciding the title of his script -Seven Psychopaths. He drinks more often than he writes and doesn't want to follow all stereotypes regarding psychopaths. His would be a movie about a Buddhist psychopath and there would be no violence in the movie. Billy (Sam Rockwell) is an unemployed actor who is also a part-time dog-thief. Billy tries to help him out with his script and publishes an ad for all psychopaths that'd give his friend some interesting ideas.

The movie's story revolves around the dog of a hip gangster, Charlie (Woody Harrelson) who is kidnapped by Billy. As the movie progresses, we are introduced to each of the seven psychopaths and the stories about them. As things get messier, the script for Marty's movie also plays itself out (probably the concept was taken from Kaufman's Adaptation).

The dialogues are dark and witty and may not work well for someone who doesn't have a taste for such subject matter. The cast was perfect, specially Sam Rockwell and Woody Harrelson are the two perfect fits to play psychos. Though Christopher Walken (Hans) doesn't disappoint too. After the scene where his wife gets shot, his complete lack of emotion speaks a lot for his character. After the brilliant In Bruges, Martin McDonagh has once again teamed up with Colin Farell to come up with another dark comedy that has shades of Tarantino and Guy Ritchie in it. A must-watch for all psycho lovers.

Rating: 7.5/10

P.S. - This movie doesn't really fit the bill for my blog, but I felt even Marty deserved a mention.

Little White Lies (2010)

Jean-Louis: You spent 2 weeks lying to each other. You earn your living from it. You made it an art.......Worst of all, you lie to yourselves. Every single one of you. You buy into each other's lies. Call yourselves friends? What's friendship? Leaving a pal in the hospital 'cause your vacation matters more?

It was hard to get started with Little White Lies, specially since the initial 15 minutes seemed like it was going nowhere. Well, at the end of two and a half hours, it tries to pack a punch as it sets out to expose all relationships in today's world as superficial and fake.

Every year Max (Francois Cluzet) helps to organize a vacation for his group of friends. Only this time it's different as Ludo (Jean Dujardin) finds himself in intensive care unit after a near-fatal accident. Marie (Marion Cotillard) is the only one in the group who feels they should all stick with Ludo and cancel the vacation. However, the rest feel that even though they feel for his condition, there's not much they can do about it. Max tries to take on the act of the care-taker of the group and keeps losing it at every little imperfection at his holiday farm, be it the noisy weasels or the overgrown lawn grass. The issue with Max seems to have been aggravated after Vincent (Benoit Magimel) confesses his love for Max even when he is married with children and claims he is not "a queer".

Marie was once with Ludo and now currently seeing another musician, even though she is in only for the sex and not anything beyond that. As she moves around and never is in at a particular place for long, she finds it difficult to commit in a relationship. We see Eric (Gilles Lellouche) has a thing for Marie, though he is still hung up on Lea after being dumped by her. While at one of the dinners, Marie confesses if Vincent weren't married, she probably would have fallen for him. Most of the times we witness each of the character's inner conflicts in his or her relationships, though they don't really seem to threaten the bonds - even though superficial - in the group.

Overall it's a light-hearted movie from director, Guillaume Canet, who has given us a much more absorbing, fast-paced thriller, Tell No One, with actor Francois Cluzet. Given his previous movie, it was natural to expect more out of him while this one ends up as a little preachy.

Rating - 7/10

Days of Being Wild (1990)

York: I've heard there's a kind of bird without legs that can only fly and fly and sleep in the wind when it's tired. The bird lands only once in its life...that's when it dies. 
...........................
I used to think there was a kind of bird, once born, would keep flying until death. The fact is that bird hasn't gone anywhere. It was dead from the beginning.

Days of Being Wild is a movie that you should watch at least twice and uninterrupted to see the slow progression of a loner into the depths of hell. Initially I had the temptation of dismissing it as one of those movies about a smooth talker with not-a-care-in-the-world attitude who goes about destroying women's lives (those who have had the misfortune of falling for his sad lonely existence). But then this was Wong Kar Wai, and only towards the end I started realizing what was happening.

York (Leslie Cheung) doesn't really have a type of woman that he would like to be with. He seduces the shy Su-Lizhen (Maggie Cheung) with his words only to leave her broken and empty. And then we see him flirting around with a professional dancer, Mimi, who's unlike Su-Lizhen in every possible way. When he realizes that the woman he thought of as his mother was only someone who adopted him, he is filled with contempt for her and emotionally abuses her in a way to get revenge for not knowing who his real mother was. He finally sets off to Philippines in search of his mother and leaves behind Mimi too. Meanwhile, Tide (Andy Lau) meets Su-Lizhen while patrolling the streets, and provides her comfort and falls for her while listening to her story. Tide offers her help and mentions she could call him at the public telephone booth anytime she needs someone to talk to. However, he feels it was just that one night she might have needed some comfort and doesn't dare to take things forward between them.

After his ailing mother passes away, Tide sets off to Philippines too after giving up his job as a policeman to pursue his desire to become a sailor. The final few scenes show us the downward spiral that York's life takes. We also see Su-Lizhen (now is there a connection again with the future Su-Lizhen from In the Mood For Love? Would have to research more, I guess) finally making that call to Tide at the public telephone booth where he used to patrol, only that she doesn't know Tide had left long ago.

Wong Kar Wai doesn't glorify the life of a wanderer. Neither does he spend any time on explaining if York could be the person that he is because of his mommy-issues. Things are what they are. Their lives are not important and there's no search for a deeper meaning. No wrongs would be righted, and no tears would be shed. There's nothing heroic about these characters and they could just as easily fade into non-existence, as they actually do.

Rating: 7/10

Silver Linings Playbook (2012)

Pat: You have poor social skills. You have a problem.
Tiffany: I have a problem? You say more inappropriate things than appropriate things.

Pat Solatano (Bradley Cooper) is a man who lost the two things in life that meant most to him -his job and his wife - after beating up a guy who he finds with his wife in the shower. He ends up in a mental institution and starts realizing he suffers from bipolar disorder. After spending months in the institution, he is brought home by his mother on a plea bargain. Yet the only thing that still drives him is getting back with his wife and he believes that there never was so much of a problem. He refuses to believe, against everyone's advice, that she might have moved on. He also refuses to take his pills since that would make him bloated and he won't be able to stay good-looking and fit for his wife.

Enter Tiffany (Jennifer Lawrence)  - an equally crazy young girl with problems of her own. After losing her husband and being in a state of emotional turmoil, she ends up sleeping with 11 of her office colleagues and gets fired from her job. When they meet at a dinner hosted by Pat's friend, she sees something in common with him and tries to strike up a friendship. So far, so good.

Pat is extremely optimistic about his life going forward and doesn't believe in playing the victim. After reading Ernest Hemingway's Farewell to Arms, he throws it out of the window since it doesn't have a happy ending.  The mood swings, the anger and his delusional obsession with his wife have been played really well by Brad Cooper. From the moment Tiffany starts stubbornly pursuing Pat while promising to get him to patch up with his wife, the movie looks promising, but only to move into the tried and tested territory of a romantic comedy. It could have been so much better if the director, David Russell, could have taken it in a different direction to show what Pat is most afraid of, i.e. things don't go as per your plan. People with BP disorder do not have a great grasp on reality of life around them and the delusional optimism usually ends in heartbreak, anger and more delusions. A tragicomedy where the fate of the protagonist runs parallel with that of the hero from Farewell to Arms, even while he tries to resist it, could have made the movie Oscar material. However, the way the movie plays out in the end with people finding "true love" and all that bullshit, I really hope the Academy can see through all the hype. Even though it wouldn't be fair to Brad Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence.

Rating - 6.5/10

The Perks Of Being A Wallflower (2012)

Charlie: So this is my life. I want you to know that I'm both happy and sad and still trying to figure out how that could be.

Charlie (Logan Lerman) is an outsider - a geek who would sit quietly in a class even while knowing all the answers rather than be called "a freak". When his English teacher sees the person that he is and offers him friendship, Charlie mentions it'd be depressing to have his English teacher as the only friend on his first day in high school. He is quiet and never speaks and the only friend he has is through a series of letters that he writes (probably to his best friend who shot himself the previous summer). He meets Patrick (Ezra Miller) and Sam (Emma Watson)  at a football game and we see a developing friendship that would take us on a journey through each of their lives.

Patrick is gay and pretty much open about it, while his boyfriend, Brad (Johnny Simmons) prefers to stay closeted. While Sam, Patrick's step-sister, is the tomboyish kind who has made certain mistakes in her life and wants to turn it around. Charlie obviously has a crush on Sam, but he knows she is already taken. When he hooks up with Mary Elizabeth, more out of not being able to say no and break her heart than from any kind of attraction between the two, he instantly knows it's a disaster. And finally when Charlie and Sam get together, Sam gets admitted to Penn State and she has to leave. Charlie revisits his old dark days again and memories of sexual abuse when he was a kid resurface. Although his past has never been shown, the movie keeps dropping hints of a period when he was in a hospital and when he used to see things and have blackouts. With the help of his doctor and his family, he is able to cope and get back on his feet and is finally able to keep thoughts of suicide at rest.

This movie by Stephen Chbosky (also the author) is a decent portrayal of teenage years and some everlasting friendships. The acting from most of the cast is really good and the stand-out guy is Ezra Miller in the role of Patrick. The last time I saw him as the evil, sociopathic Kevin in We Need To Talk About Kevin, he was really convincing and once again he has managed to play a completely different role with ease. Overall, a good one-time watch.

Rating: 7/10

Adaptation (2002)

Charlie Kaufman: Do I have an original thought in my head? My bald head. Maybe if I were happier, my hair wouldn't be falling out. Life is short. I need to make the most of it. Today is the first day of the rest of my life. I'm a walking cliche......Why should I be made to feel I have to apologize for my existence? Maybe it's my brain chemistry. Maybe that's what's wrong with me. Bad chemistry. All my problems or anxiety can be reduced to a chemical imbalance or some kind of misfiring synapses. I need to get help for that. But I'll still be ugly though. Nothing's gonna change that.

Adaptation is as close to an autobiography that you can get from Kaufman. After the success of Being John Malkovich, Charlie Kaufman (Nicolas Cage) tries to adapt a non-fiction book, "The Orchid Thief" by Susan Orleans (Meryl Streep) into a movie. Trying to show that a movie can be just about simple things where nothing ever happens, he goes into a writer's block and is not able to get started.

Charlie has brought in a fictional twin brother, Donald Kaufman (Nicolas Cage), who is everything that he is not. As Charlie asks, "That you and I share the same DNA, can there be anything more lonely than that"? Charlie keeps feeling embarrassed by Donald's ways when he keeps flirting with women in his crew, and also the fact that Donald is not an intellectual like him. When Donald comes to stay with him while being enrolled in a seminar on how to make movies, Charlie pokes fun at the gurus who claim to know how movies are done. In a scene, he explains, "I don't want to bring in sex or guns or car chases, or characters learning profound lessons or overcoming obstacles to succeed in the end. Because life isn't like that. You know, it just isn't. And I feel strongly about it". As he struggles to get going on his task, he finds it increasingly difficult to find a story to make the movie. In the meantime, Donald's script of a thriller, "The 3", seems to have been liked by most people in the industry. Finally, in an act of desperation, he turns to his brother for help and finds himself attending a seminar on making movies by the same guru. While asking a question on how to deal with a movie where nothing ever happens or where the characters don't have a moment of epiphany,  he gets scolded by the guru for saying that nothing ever happens in life.  As he gets his brother to help him on his script, we see a twist in the movie with "sex, guns and car chases".

People who say that the ending was very "Hollywood style", well, that was the point. As the script for his movie and his own life run parallel, we get to see the whole joke about it. Like the guru says, "The last act makes a film. You can have flaws, problems, but wow them in the end, and you've got a hit".

Rating: 7.5/10