Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Mysterious Skin

by James McNally on April 11, 2007

in DVD

Mysterious Skin

Mysterious Skin (Director: Gregg Araki, USA, 2004): Two boys share a dark secret until their paths cross again ten years later. If it sounds a bit melo­dra­matic, well, it might be, except that the two boys smother their pain in dif­ferent ways. Neil (Joseph Gordon-Levitt in a breakout per­form­ance) remem­bers everything about the summer when he was eight with a sort of romantic nos­talgia. He loved the atten­tion his base­ball coach lav­ished on him, even all the spe­cial games they played when they were alone. He has grown into a sullen gay hustler who doesn’t let anyone get close to him emo­tion­ally. Brian (Brady Corbet) doesn’t remember the night where he “lost five hours,” and suf­fers night­mares, black­outs and nosebleeds for years. Over time, he becomes con­vinced that he was abducted by aliens. Since we know Neil’s story already, we know the truth is much more pro­saic. This is a film that abso­lutely requires stellar per­form­ances from these two actors and they deliver.

Entwining Neil’s vivid remem­brances with Brian’s efforts to remember any shred of detail gives the film an inter­esting struc­ture, and the fact that the two boys don’t meet again until the very end of the film gives the ending a real emo­tional punch. Neil’s strange and sad nos­talgia at the begin­ning about the events that happened to them fails by the end to hide the real damage that both boys have suffered. The ending does leave us with a kernel of hope, although there is a bit of voi­ceover that seems to come out of nowhere. The fact that the film is based on a novel by Scott Heim prob­ably has some­thing to do with the com­plic­ated multiple-flashback struc­ture, and I think the screenplay’s attempt to sim­plify it shows a few seams in places.

Overall, though, the lead per­form­ances carry us over any bumps and make this an exper­i­ence both dis­turbing and moving.

P.S. The “present-day” in the film is 1991, and so the soundtrack fea­tures a lot of great bands from the “Shoegaze” era: Slowdive, Curve, Ride, and the Cocteau Twins.

8/10(8/10)

Tagged as: adolescence, children, DVD, homosexuality

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Children of Men

by Jay Kerr on April 11, 2007

in DVD

Children of Men

Children of Men (Director: Alfonso Cuarón, UK/USA, 2006): I really wanted to watch this film last Saturday but the 200 copies at the local Blockbuster were gone. What’s a guy to do when he has com­pany over and has to make a good film pick? I paid full price for the DVD and I feel it was worth it.

Children of Men was on a lot of Top Ten lists last year and a lot of critics con­sidered it to be the best film of the year. Was it better than Pan’s Labyrinth or The Departed? Hard to say. My favourite is still Pan’s Labyrinth.

Children of Men is dark, beau­tiful and def­in­itely not a main­stream pop­corn flick. It’s the type of film that stays with you long after it ends and will have some people won­dering why they spent 109 minutes watching it. I enjoyed it and need to watch it again.

Set in the future, Children of Men presents a world where human­kind is on the brink of extinc­tion. A killer virus wiped out all the world’s chil­dren and left the adults infer­tile. Amidst all the anarchy and chaos, a preg­nant woman appears with a mir­acle child, a saviour for the world.

Like The Matrix before it, Children of Men will surely inspire a number of uni­ver­sity courses along the lines of “The Christology of Children of Men”. The bib­lical ref­er­ences run deep and will make this a pop­ular film to ana­lyze and discuss.

There were many incred­ible scenes in this film but the one that stuck with me the most involves the crying baby. The pres­ence of this mir­acle child and its crying voice is louder than the deaf­ening crackle of auto­matic gun­fire. It’s one of those cine­matic moments that you’ll remember for years—think Schindler’s List and the scene with the child in the red coat.

In the last few days there’s been quite a buzz about the incred­ible cine­ma­to­graphy in this film—the long takes and the mag­ni­fi­cent camera work will have you scratching your head. There is a lot to enjoy about this film if you’re willing to par­ti­cipate in it while you watch it.

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