[REVIEW: In Theaters] An Unfinished Song (7/10)

I originally approached Paul Andrew Williams' Unfinished Song (originally titled Song for Marion) with some skepticism: granted this isn't a bloated summer action film but the art house was now putting out a "product" that didn't seem entirely original: like an explosion of ideas geared towards the senior citizen audience: I thought about films such as Quartet, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and How About You (and countless others) - musical seniors, seniors learning to live again, and a pretty young women that enters their lives: yes, Unfinished Song is that.

Where it diverts from the formula is in, in what it's really about it: it has lighter moments but several darker ones as well - consider our lead, Arthur (Terrance Stamp) - he's a crusty old pensioner from a middle class neighborhood. His wife Marion (Vanessa Redgrave) has to remind him to smile every morning: she's joined the neighborhood choir run by a pretty young women who volunteers her time, perhaps seeking wisdom (Gemma Arterton). After Marion passes away Arthur's relationship with his son (played by Christopher Eccleson) becomes more fractured. Sure this story goes exactly where you think its going (senior art house films are almost as predicable as big summer movies - luckily without the 3 hour running time, because life is too short).

I enjoyed Unfinished Song because it is about a growing old while remaining independent and stubborn: it has lighter moments but there's something dark under the hood - a lot of pain and suffering for which there's little explanation (perhaps they men forget why they're mad at each other in the first place, they only know they're suppose to remain this way). It's not as riveting a work of social realism, like say, a film by Mike Leigh - but it has its moments.


Screening: Dipson Amherst

[In Theaters: REVIEW] MIDNIGHT'S CHILDREN (8/10)

Midnight’s Children, which was paired down from a 466-page book to a 146-minute film is structurally an excellent, accessible and ambitious work that maybe bites off a little more than it can chew. Spanning three generations in the history of colonial and post-colonial India (and the further fragmentation of the country into Pakistan and Bangladesh) - the film is vibrant, colorful and fascinating.

Central to the narrative is the family of Saleem Sinai (Satya Bhabha) – one of “midnight’s children”, he’s born just as India gains independence, haunted by the voices of the other children of midnight. The novel's author, Salman Rushdie serves as the story’s narrator. Directed by Deepa Mehta, a noted critic of Indian society and norms (including her powerful trilogy Fire, Earth and Water), her work also examines the role of Indians in Canadian society including Heaven on Earth and her light Toronto-set comedy Bollywood/Hollywood. Rushdie is an apt colloborators, in a story that seems less critique and really more magical realism: tracing the childhood and coming of age of Saleem – who was switched at birth. Actually the son of peasants, he’s switch at birth with Shiva – who is sent into a life of poverty, when the truth is revealed Saleem is sent to live with his aunt and uncle in Pakistan – witnessing the birth of a nation by military rule. His mother (played by Shahana Goswami) struggles with her own sexual issues including her own liberation causing a rift in her marriage (especially as we’ve seen the origin of this marriage earlier in the film).

The film is an awfully complex weaving of themes as fragmented, complex and ripe with contradictions as the nation it chronicles. Critics have accused it as a “mythification” – and perhaps it is a film intended for a Western audience (a good chunk of the film is spoken in English after all). Perhaps compressing the novel into a film that does race over key moments in history is doing the novel a disservice, but this is cinema: Midnight’s Children might have made for a more effective mini-series. While Slumdog Millionaire chronicled deep contradictions (that would allow for slums next to high rise office and residential towers), Midnight’s Children plays as a prequel of sorts. The film is far from perfect, epic in scope and overflowing with ideas - - in a summer filled with over bloated mindless entertainment this is a refreshing art house outing as imperfect as it is.

It goes without saying the film is beautifully shot and technically rather astounding: it suffers from, although that is the point, a mandate. The children of independence are also with a mixed candidate inspired by the baggage of the colonial era – the moral of the story is one cannot escape the complexities of history, both personal and national – even as they make history. 

Screening: Dipson Amherst Theatre

[In Theaters: REVIEW] THE EAST (8/10)

Director/co-writer Zal Batmanglij’s last collaboration with actress/co-writer Brit Marling, the criminally under seen Sound of My Voice came and went in Buffalo last summer (underscoring the need for a good microcinema that could give a movie like that time to find an audience). The East, a much larger budget effort opens up the contained universe of Sound of My Voice, again exploring a sort of cult.

Marling (also seen in apt social/political thrillers like Arbitrage and The Company You Keep) stars as Sarah, a private intelligence analyst who receives a field assignment to penetrate “The East”, a group of eco terrorism. The trailer says it all: “it’s easy when it’s not your home, it’s easy when it’s not your family, but when it’s your fault, it shouldn’t be so easy”.

The function of a film like The East (and films like Zero Dark Thirty) I think is to provide some context for those that aren’t really paying attention. If you watch the News Hour on PBS this all seems like low hanging fruit ripped from the headlines. Batmanglij keeps his camera at eye level, employing mostly handheld work, it’s the kind of thriller folks in Buffalo can (and should) make: it’s got something to say with a powerful moral twist. Where does one go? Who’s right? And do the ends justify the means.

Ultimately, like the Occupy movement differences in ideology ultimately sink The East. What’s fascinating is the film is about this debate and that line. It takes a slightly preachy tone later on, taking freegamism to a whole new level of heretics. Its targets are all deserving up to the last jams. Never boring The East is full of satisfying twists and turns, its riveting powerful filmmaking.

The East features strong supporting performances from Ellen Page and Toby Kebbell as two young folks that had the means and resources to do anything, any they chose an underground freegan life of eco-terrorism. While the film has certain ideology that it in the later half pushes down our throats (restraint, in one scene in particular would have been useful) it remains a strong, thoughtful, provoking and entertaining film.

Screening: Dipson Amherst Theatre.