Theatre of War

Theatre of War was at best interesting. This documentary was based on both the life of Bertolt Brecht and the 2006 production of “Mother Courage” by the Public Theatre in New York. Theatre of War gave an extensive timeline of Brecht fleeing Germany as well as an amusing recording of Brecht, once in the United States, being questioned about allegiance with the communist party. The documentary also followed the rehearsals of the Public Theatre’s “Mother Courage” with incredible performance footage of Meryl Streep and Kevin Kline. To me the most moving moments were in comments by Meryl Streep on her role as an actor and on the purpose of “Mother Courage” for today’s audiences.

Director John Walter prefaced this film by saying, “Making a documentary is like spending a year digging yourself into a hole and then spending the next year trying to claw your way back out”. And the audience could feel his clawing. Walter has assembled an incredible amount of information but failed to share any of his own opinion or insight. We were left ask, so what? The most creative response applied the transitive property to this documentary coming to an interesting but explored conclusion. Marxism applies to “Mother Courage”. “Mother Courage” applies to present day politics. Therefore, Marxism should apply to present day politics. When asked point blank about this conclusion, the film makers gave a resounded “No comment”, “I don’t know”, and “Yes!”

Paraiso Travel

Paraiso Travel was introduced as the steamy Latin film of the year and already a box office hit in its home country, Colombia. From this I was expecting an exotic romance between these two young Colombians as they travel to New York. I was so wrong. More than anything, this film is a disturbing spotlight on immigration. In Colombia, the young couple and a group of about 10 other Colombians meet with a “travel agent” and pay a huge amount of money for their trip to New York. Its sold as an all-inclusive, first class trip but immediately becomes a nightmare.

The immigrants are robbed, raped, forced to live in awful conditions, risk their lives forging rivers, and only the lucky survive all the way to New York. The saddest part of this whole story is that many of these immigrants were not poor in Colombia. The main character, Marlon, had a loving family in a big house that wanted him to go to the university. He put himself through all this suffering simply on the whim of his girlfriend, Reina, who he loses the first night he arrives in New York.

This was a tragic but beautifully made film that deserves to be screened throughout the US if only to force audiences here to acknowledge the plight of Latin American immigrants. Paraiso Travel isn’t just a painful social commentary. It creates beautiful relationships between its characters and immerses even a New York audience into a previously unknown world within their city.

Savage Grace

Director Tom Kalin

I was exhausted by the last screening of the day but it was definitely interesting enough to hold my attention. Savage Grace based on the book of the same title, follows the true story of the Baekeland family. As the director urged after the screening, I will try to not replace the entire movie with just the last 20 minutes.

The film begins with a glamorous young couple and their baby boy, Tony. The loving mother Barbara, played by Julianne Moore, is the complete opposite of the harsh father, Brooks. After the extreme wealth of the family is understood, the film jumps forward 10 years to the family living in Paris. Everything about their live is the epitome of elegance and the mother and young son make the cutest pair walking along the gardens of Paris. Then we skip forward seven years and Tony is a teenager vacationing with the family in Mallorca. Here we see the beautiful, sun-bleached boy Tony and his first possible romantic interests. These come in the form of Blanca, a young Spanish girl, and Jake, a young Spanish hash dealer. Tony takes Blanca on a trip with his own parents and his father “bores” her with a discussion of the family wealth.

In the next fast forward, Barbara sees Brooks and Blanca in the airport and runs after them raving. Apparently, Brooks has left Barbara for his son’s girlfriend Blanca. Barbara and Tony are left on their own and never get over this betrayal. Barbara brings in a stand in gay man to escort her to various functions and help her regain status in society. This ends in a three way sexual encounter between Barbara, her escort, and her son Tony.

In the final fast forward, Barbara and Tony are living in London. Tony still narrates his life in a letter to his father who has never had the decency to apologize to his son. Although Tony is an adult, he has never mentally moved past the point of childhood. The final seems are disturbing in everyway and include very straightforward acts of incest and murder.

It is hard to not be horrified by the ending of this film. The biggest question in my head and one that another audience member asked was “Why would you choose to make a film about this?” The oh-so-funny director, Tom Kalin, responded, “Well, its mostly autobiographical”. He then explained that tragedy in any form is a common human experience and these characters fell from the greatest height. I think this is a valid point and the film contains more than enough beauty and love in the first half to make the story of this family of interest to the audience.

Lake City

Sissy Spacek Q & A

The next screening of the afternoon was Lake City starring Sissy Spacek. In comparison to the other films I’ve seen so far, this has the most potential of going mainstream. Lake City is set in the classic American small town where Spacek’s character owns a farm. Her husband isn’t mentioned but throughout the film the story of her two sons unravels to reveal the death of her younger son at a very young age.

But the film is about the next generation when the older son returns home many years later with a young boy, his own son. From here the story somehow becomes a thriller and ends with the mother, son, and grandson trying to outrun drug lords in a cornfield. It was a little over the top but overall a loving film about the average, screwed up American family.

This Is Not a Robbery

After standing in a line that wrapped around the block, we were finally let in to the documentary This Is Not a Robbery about senior citizen bank robber JL Rountree. The documentary followed an interesting timeline mixing both the biography and the later bank robbing spree of Rountree. This Is Not a Robbery constantly teetered between hilarity and heart breaking tragedy and sometimes this all came wrapped together in the same story. For example, while in federal prison (as the oldest inmate) in Florida, another inmate tried to steal Rountree’s shoes. Rountree attacked him with his cane, shattering the inmate’s arm.

It turned out that Rountree had lost his only son in a car accident when the son was only 23. Rountree’s wife, with whom he had a “50 year love affair”, died early of cancer. Rountree was left to grow old alone and miserable and always remembered the banker that at one point in his life had put him into bankruptcy. And so at the age of 83, he began to rob banks.

Rountree was not a very successful bank robber and ended up in jail more than once. The southern justice system was always sympathetic to him and more than once let him out of jail early to live out the rest of his days in peace. Rountree would immediately start planning his next robbery.

One of the best interviews in the film was with the teller Rountree had robbed at a bank in Jacksonville, Florida. She admitted that after the robbery she became paranoid around the elderly and had to quit her job at the bank. She is now an elementary school teacher.

Bitter and Twisted

Christopher Weekes, writer/director/actor

My Saturday started with the Australian film Bitter and Twisted by first time 24-year old director/writer/actor Christopher Weekes. The film begins with the death of a young man, Liam, and we never find out much about his life or how he died. Then the film fast forwards three years and follows the lives of Liam’s family and girlfriend, none of whom have “gotten over it”. The most heartbreaking character is Liam’s father, and overweight car salesman, who eats lunch at his son’s grave everyday and is completely numb to the world around him. Half way through the film you really feel like this man’s life is so awful that suicide might be a good option.

Liam’s brother, played by Christopher Weekes, is a skinny and infinitely awkward guy who tries to take Liam’s place in the family and with his girlfriend but ultimately ends up upsetting everyone around him. There is one incredibly shot scene in which the brother and the girlfriend are sitting on a park bench and the camera circles them rapidly switching from close-ups on each of their faces. During this dizzying camera work, the brother suddenly becomes Liam, but after another rotation, switches back to reality.

The only glimmer of happiness in this film is the brother’s possible gay friend who, for inexplicable reasons, ends up falling in love with this awkward and quiet young brother. The straightforward confession of love and sureness of this character were a shining light within the sea of dark confusion every other character was living in.

After the film, Christopher Weekes answered audience questions and it turned out that this was his first ever attempt at film after being rejected from film school 9 times. And also that while shooting, he truly believed he was shooting a comedy. While this is probably the beginning of an incredible career, it seems that Christopher Weekes himself is Bitter and Twisted.

Shorts: Cold Feet

Other notable shorts included a German drama of a high level corporate bank robbery that turned into a social commentary of globalization. One of my favorites was an Alaskan battle shot in complete whiteness and simply because there are far too few films about Alaska and Eskimos. The one truly bizarre short was a French film about a boy growing up with a unique disability. He constantly had water pouring out of the top of his head. The film had no dialogue so there were no explanations but it had a lovely quality to it.

Shorts: Cold Feet

Mathew Modine, Shiloh Strong, and Rider Strong

After an hour break relaxing in the American Express Lounge, we headed to the last screening of the night, which was a collection of 7 short films. The first was the shortest and a professed joke by actor and director Mathew Modine. The film was about thinking too much but apparently the real meaning of the film was how little it took to make a film today. We’re pretty sure Mathew Modine was a little buzzed at the screening unless he’s that disrespectful and arrogant all the time. But somehow he was delightfully funny.

The film we had come to see was Irish Twins created and acted by Shiloh and Rider Strong. The film was much darker than anticipated with a completely unexpected turn to the dark side in the end. It was a well-written and well-acted drama about two brothers by two brothers and I hope to see more from the Strong brothers soon.

Bart Got a Room

The Director and Cast: Brian Hecker, William H. Macy, Alia Shawkat, Steven Kaplan, and Cheryl Hines

Oh, South Florida! There really aren’t many movies that try to tackle the complete culture of this bizarre pocket of the country. Director and south Florida native, Brian Heckler, took on this challenge in his hilarious film Bart Got a Room. This film portrayed Danny, a high school senior and only child of a divorced Jewish couple (played by William H. Macy and Cheryl Hines). The who film is a count down to prom night and Danny’s quest to find a date other than his long time childhood friend Camille (played by Alia Shawkat). Danny’s parents, inappropriate and over-sharing to the max, will stop at nothing to help their son on his quest. Even is it means picking up a hooker on the street to be his prom date.

Bart Got a Room was hilarious the whole way through but had an unforgettable father-son twist on the famous Harry and Sally dinner scene. When Danny’s dad moves into a new house by the beach, he tries to convince Danny to bring his dates home there instead of to his mothers. The discussion quickly develops into a debate on the soundproof quality of the walls. To test this, William H. Macy gives a brilliant performance of the 10 different levels of noise that might occur when either father or son “has a woman over”. And of course the front door has been left open and in the middle of his performance, a white haired and brightly colored south Florida woman slowly makes her way to the door with a plate of baked goods and then slowly retreats.

The performances of William H. Macy and Cheryl Hines hilarious and apparently based on the directors real life parents who were in the audience. The one disappointment of this film was the part of Camille played by Alia Shawkat. The director gave a speech saying that he only wanted Maeby from Arrested Development to play Camille and no one else would do. But the part of Camille was one of the only non-humorous roles in the film. Her character was quiet and boring and plain which is exactly why Danny didn’t want to take her to the prom in the first place. As a big fan of Alia, I wish she had been given a role with a little more comic substance.

Trucker

Director James Mortern and Actress Michelle Monaghan

My first screening Friday was Trucker starring Michelle Monaghan. Yes, she has a fluffy, mainstream romantic comedy with Patrick Dempsey coming out next week but this week she was the polar opposite. Trucker is the story of a young woman big rig driver based out of a depressing desert town in California. She is completely independent to a point where she seems detached and guarded against everyone she interacts with. We learn that she has an 11-year-old son from a previous and short-lived marriage but when the son shows up at her door, she wants nothing to do with him.

Trucker becomes a gritty and emotional journey of mother and son learning how to love each other. There are some breathtaking shots of the “Great American West” along the trucker’s route and phenomenal performances by the small cast (including actors Benjamin Bratt, Nathan Fillon, and Jimmy Bennet). Sniffling was heard throughout the theatre during the hospital scene between father, played by Benjamin Bratt, and son, played by Jimmy Bennet, when the father tells his son that he is dying and explains to him what it means to do good in life. The audience falls into the trap of believing that is the emotional climax of the film but a more gruesome and dramatic climax is still to come.

Conrad!

Tina and Amy were swamped all night but we did get to talk to my first choice, Romany Malco. He was carrying a murse but looked great and he was so sweet. He held my hand and told us Weeds had started filming but he hasn’t yet (is he not in the first few episodes???). But he promised us that we would like it and that we would definitely be surprised. What a wonderful guy, I will keep a look out for him the rest of the festival!

MoMA afterparty

Aside from the actual film, the Baby Mama premiere and Tribeca Film Festival opening night was done right. The after party at the MoMA was class all the way with beautiful cherry blossom arrangements and elegant tables sweeping out into the sculpture garden. The bar even served the “Orange you glad I didn’t say banana” smoothies from the movie. Spotted at the party were most of the Baby Mama cast (minus Steve Martine and Greg Kinnear, big chunks of both the SNL and 30 Rock casts (aww Jimmy Fallon!), Rider Stong (he sat directly behind us for the screening!), and a few oddities such as Chevy Chase.

Baby Mama

A huge thank you to Debbie who gave Amanda passes to the premiere and festival and to Amanda who shared them with me. This is my favorite time of year and there is no better way to spend the first beautiful weeks of spring in the city!

The 2008 Tribeca Film Festival opened last night with the world premiere of the movie Baby Mama. Every year the festival has a more main stream, big budget film premiere and it’s not necessarily a coveted spot. In 2007, the painful film Lucky You had this honor and in 2006, Mission Impossible III under impressed its first audience at Tribeca. Baby Mama fell well above these two films and was an enjoyable hour and a half. But an enjoyable passage of time is about the best one can say about Baby Mama.

With an incredible cast and the two smartest female comedians of this generation of SNL, it’s hard to understand why the film just wasn’t that funny. As involved as Tina Fey has been in her last two projects (30 Rock and Mean Girls), starring in the film wasn’t enough to make it a Tina Fey success. The writer and director Michael McCullers (who’s previous credits include Austin Powers films), satisfy the comedic powers of Tina Fey and Amy Pohler. There were a few funny moments and the audience was forced into the position of a live laugh track; we knew we should laugh but also that if we were watching this at home not much of it would make us actually laugh out loud.

The above-mentioned incredible cast played a wide variety of ridiculously stereotyped characters. There was Steve Martin who played a hippie businessman and yes in fact did run a natural foods company, have waist long hair, meditate, and do yoga. Romany Malco (best known as Conrad from the show Weeds) played a typified black doorman and was, of course, the one to bring up the phrase “baby mama”. Amy Pohler was white trash, and stupid along with her common law dead beat white trash husband, and in a moment of dramatic confrontation, Tina Fey’s successful businesswoman character hurtfully calls Amy Pohler white trash!

All in all, the movie was more poignant than expected but also completely predictable from the half way point. Tina Fey fans will still want to see it but will quickly realize that Baby Mama is not as smart as Mean Girls and not as funny as 30 Rock.