Noba at the Movies

So this weekend I finally got around to watching 2 Netflix DVDs that had been sitting on my home theater's subwoofer (the usual nesting ground for anything I'm intending to watch, due to it's close proximity to the moving-picture-window-box-thingie). I really should cancel my subscription, but I don't because, in theory, I really want to watch these movies. But in practice, I usually don't have the time. But yeah, you really care about that, dont you?

OK, so the movies were "Garden State" and "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind." First off, I highly recommend both. As for their relative merits, here's my two cents.


"Garden State" - Written, Directed, and Starring Zach Braff. Co-starring Natalie Portman as Luke Skywalker's mom. Not sure why she's in NJ, though.
This movie was good stuff. It's one of those films where pretty much every scene, shot, and frame offers something different and interesting. First off, I'll say that this Braff guy (who looks familiar but I couldn't place why - if anyone knows what else he's done, let me know...too lazy to go on IMDB right now) is pretty amazing. Not only did he write and direct this sucker, he gives a great performance as the leading character. The plot summary is fairly simple: His character is a struggling actor in LA, on a steady diet of anti-depressants that his father, a psychiatrist, has been feeding him since he was young. Due to his mother's death, he heads back to his home in NJ for her funeral, which will mark his first trip there in 9 years. After a few brief visits with old high school buddies and time spent generally avoiding his father, he meets the lovely Ms. Portman in a waiting room. He's dysfunctional, she's dysfunctional, but they hit it off and find themselves in each other blah blah blah. Yes, it is cliche - but the movie isn't.

One of the best things about this movie is the acting, which is fortunate because this is easily the type of script that could have ended up horrible if the wrong actors were cast. Braff must have realized this, since Natalie Portman (an Oscar-nominee this year, although not for this film) is pretty damn talented in everything (except the Star Wars movies) and chose himself to play the leading role. Without the cast assembled, the movie would fall apart on its own weight because the comedic and dramatic dialogue is so nuanced that a mangled line or two would easily ruin an entire scene. As for the comedy itself, the wit is brillant without being distracting from the general emotional tone of the whole film. Perhaps the thing that most surprised me is that I anticipated this would be a somewhat "trendy" movie for aging Gen-Xers and the crowd at any theater in Midtown Atlanta. While it may still be all that, fortunately it is also more. "Garden State" is just so well-done without being stuck on itself to pass the muster. It's a cliched storyline with enough interesting characters and dialogue to make it an original.

Rating: 8/10
Movies it Reminds me of/If you like "Garden State," you'll love: The Graduate, Ordinary People, Good Will Hunting, You Can Count on Me


"Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" - Screenplay by the one-and-only Charlie Kaufman. Starring Jim Carrey, Kate Winslet, Kirsten Dunst, Elijah Wood

If you know a bit about my movie tastes, you know I love Kaufman's stuff. The mere fact that a screenwriter's name gets a higher standing on the marquee than those who direct or produce his movies tells you something about his talent, since writers get shit on in Hollywood when it comes to receiving credit and recognition. The things in his movies that I enjoy are pretty much the things I look for in movies overall: originality, interesting characters, lack of predictability, and good old fashioned storytelling.

"Being John Malkovich," one of Kaufman's first, is still one of my top 5 favorite films. If I've just met you, it's probably the first movie I'll force-feed you as a condition of continued association. This is because it's probably the most original and entertaining film of the last 10 years. In BJM, Kaufman's brillance stands out because he's able to write a movie with an outlandish premise, accompanied by extreme characters and situations, and still pull it off. His scripts are not "safe." They won't remind you of other films (except for his, which made the recommendations I put below pretty limited). First and foremost, they require a traditionalist film-watcher to suspend their conceptions of what they usually expect in a movie (even if they don't know the jargon for it). These things typically are: the love interest, the hero, the emotional climax, the "happily ever after" resolution, 3-Act structure, etc. Basically, I'm talking about preconceived archetypes and notions about movies needing a set "formula." For proof that formula doesn't a good movie make, see: "Godzilla," and pretty much any Freddie Prinze, Jr. movie. Actually, wait...dont see any of those


Now, I don't to feel like I'm portraying the guy as this radical revolutionary of cinema who completely abandons the status quo in pursuit of his mission to make great films for Noba. His movies are still studio movies, and his casts include the likes of John Cusack, Cameron Diaz, Meryl Streep, and Nicolas Cage - not exactly the ensemble of an independent film. Also, Kaufman borrows the aformentioned traditional values frequently, but only to serve his overall plot or poke fun at them. Believe me, the man pisses all over traditional style when it comes to the big picture. "Adaptation," the second jewel in the Kaufman crown, spends most of its time doing just that - literally. For those of you who haven't caught Adaptation, the general premise is this: the real-life Kaufman was given a book to adapt into a screenplay, and had such difficulty in doing so, that he decided to just write the screenplay about how hard the process was, with himself (Nicolas Cage) as the main person. In the midst of showing the inner torture of writer's block, it also manages to pull off the major themes of the book he is struggling so hard to write about - adapting to your environment, and the continuing struggle of life and insecurity. So Kaufman, who is noted for his distaste for publicity and exposure (he's only agreed to do a single interview despite his success), completely exposes himself through the story. We see Cage's Kaufman feel like an outcast on the BJM set, struggling over poor social skills, and even masturbating over the author of the book he's adapting. Through his struggles to adapt Susan Orlean's "The Orchard Thief," he pokes fun at movie agents, studios, and what audiences want, without us realizing that, by the end, he has followed the exact "formula" he spent the movie ravaging. The interweaving of plots is tremendous, as Cage finds himself wrapped up in the personal lives of the Orlean and the main character of her book. This points to Kaufman's trademark - interweaving fiction and reality into the same plot. Both in "Adaptation" and "BJM," you will see this again and again. Good stuff.

So, if you can't tell due to some schizophrenic disorder, I'm a Chuck Kaufman fan. Surprisingly, I hadn't caught "Eternal Sunshine" yet, although I had wanted to see it during its theater run. I'm sure we all heard of it, especially since it netted a few Oscar nominations (including Kafuman's third best screenplay nod - not bad when you only wrote 5 movies, only 4 of which received any attention). Again, he's got the big stars - Carrey, Winslet, Dunst - to help him carry forth another grandiose scenario that tests the limits about what you can do in a movie.

The premise of ESOSM is this: Joel (Carrey) and his long-time girlfriend Clementine (Winslet) just ended their relationship after a bitter fight resulting from their frustration over each other's imperfections. They're deeply in love, to be sure, and are in definite "soulmate" territory. They complement each other; indeed, they need each other to complete what's missing due to their own insecurities. She's wild, loud, and outgoing. He's melancholy, withdrawn, but attuned to a part of her that no one else sees. They "fit," and I'm guessing Kaufman is theorizing on true love, because otherwise his premise wouldn't work.

So we have lovers torn apart by saying things they didn't mean and focusing more on what they don't like in each other rather than what brought and kept them together in the first place. So, nothing too original just yet, right? Well, BAM! The twist comes early and never stops. You see, Joel tries to offer a Valentine's gift at her workplace in an attempt at reconciliation, and is suprised and incensed to discover that she treats him like a total stranger. Whining to mutual friends later, they inform him that she has opted for a procedure in which all her memories of him are literally erased from her mind. So Joel decides to do the same, turning over to the doctor everything he connects with her - gifts, notes, diary entries, letters, clothes, whatever. The "erasure" team comes to his house and begins the mind-sweep, which is done while putting the patient in a coma-like sleep. As if this wasn't dreamt-up enough, the wild turns keep coming.

As the procedure progresses, and we find Joel exploring his own memory and subconscious as it is swept out from under him, he changes his mind and realizes these memories with Clementine are worth keeping. Meanwhile, Clementine is swept up in the feeling of missing something. She is compelled to spontaneously run off to places that meant something to her and Joel, without knowing why. To complicate things, one of the "erasers" who performed the procedure on her is now attempting to woo her, using the arsenal of Joel mementos she turned in before her own erasure. He's saying the words and giving the gifts Joel gave her, but her interest in him just isn't happening. She's missing something, Kaufman is telling us, that only this person can provide. Spliced through the story we see, through Joel's memory, scenes of their relationship - before they are lost to Joel forever. Still under the coma of the procedure, which the erasers are desparately trying to continue despite his reluctance, Joel attempts to stash his memories in places where they won't be erased. Soon he is incorporating Clementine into his childhood, teenage years, etc. Again, Kaufman is reflecting the idea that the ones you love become a part of you and your soul, and are not just isolated to the period of your life that you know them.

Long story short, the memory sweep goes according to plan. But Joel and Clementine, due to compulsions brought by the procedure, meet by chance. The sparks fly like they did before, yet neither knows of their past with one another. By a plot twist involving the lovely Ms. Dunst that I won't exaggerate upon, they find out about their past with each other, including everything they hated and why it ended, and decide to go forth anyway.

The thing I like about this, which occurred to me just now writing this, is that Kaufman is able to use a tired-old movie theme - "love conquers all" - and give it a completely new but basic meaning. There's no lovers separated by war or anything like that, it's just a story about lovers willingly separated that forget about the insignificant things that tore them apart and are able to begin anew. And Kaufman requires more than one stretch of the imagination on the part of the audience to tell it. But he pulls it off.

If you want to be wildly entertained, and laugh your ass off, see BJM. To see an extremely well-crafted but unconventional movie with very little classic cinema excitement, see Adaptation. But if you have a date, are rebounding, or just need some inspiration to show you that love exists in a vacuum, see ESOSM. Or if you're Noba, and think Charlie Kaufman is one of the only original people left in the field of art today, then that can be your reason. :-)

RATING: 8/10
Movies it Reminds me of/If you like this, you'll love: BJM, Adaptation (duh)

I know I haven't been posting much lately...laptop troubles are partly to blame, but I'm also busy as always. Good stuff coming soon, I promise. And don't forget Noba's birthday on March 6th. This should be the loneliest one in a while, what with being in a new area where no one even knows it's my birthday, nor probably cares since Noba is MIA at law school social functions. So all my old friends, brighten my day, por favor.