REVIEWS, MORE REVIEWS, WITH NOTHING MORE TO SHOW FOR IT
Well, I applied for an internship with eye magazine, but I haven't heard back so I'm assuming I'm not even going to be considered for an interview. How disheartening. Anyways, the good news is that I had to come up with some writing samples, so I might as well post them here. (Re-reading the Eternal Sunshine review, it does seem kinda weak.)
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind ****
The screenwriter Charlie Kaufman has an undeniable knack for the straight-faced treatment of the most outlandish premises. Teamed with director Spike Jonze, Kaufman's imaginative comedies Being John Malkovich and Adaptation are done with such deadpan aplomb that the films are constantly in danger of turning the joke on the audience. Yet fans (and detractors) of the Jonze-Kaufman films should not expect more of the same in the astonishing Michel Gondry directed Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Gondry and Kaufman want something more ambitious than just another mindfuck. They want to get under your skin.
Kaufman has always sought the emotional truth from his wacky scenarios, but never before has that core been so poignant: a distraught nebbish, Joel (Jim Carrey), upon learning that his ex-girlfriend, Clementine (Kate Winslet), has had him erased from her memory, decides to undergo the same procedure. Fast asleep while the technicians from the Lacuna clinic do their work, Joel changes his mind mid-procedure and starts to hide what's left of Clementine in the fabric of other memories so that his darling is not lost and gone forever.
Playing the relationship back in reverse, Kaufman and Gondry chart with clinical precision what makes these opposites attract--and what ultimately drove them apart. Under Gondry's guidance, Carrey gives a performance unlike anything in his career. Keeping his manic energy under the surface, he's discovered the Method trick of being restrained but not vegetative. And Winslet pulls off the even harder task of fleshing out the chameleon-haired kook of his dreams.
Not surprisingly coming from a writer who once parodied screenwriting guru Robert McKee, maintaining a conventional, linear narrative arc isn't always a top priority. And the premise, weaving memory, fantasy, and reality as seen from inside Joel's head, is a goldmine for a filmmaker as visually inventive as Gondry. Yet Gondry isn't a trickster, and Eternal Sunshine isn't a hostile film. It's as generous towards the audience as it is towards its lovelorn characters. (Kirsten Dunst, Mark Ruffalo, Elijah Wood, and the amazing Tom Wilkinson round out the cast.) By the time the story reaches its jaw-dropping coda, this generosity borders on the miraculous. And for a love story that concludes that forgetting and letting go of the past are the most essential steps to ever really falling in love again, it's the probably the most optimistic break-up movie ever made.
Kill Bill Vol. II **1/2
Quentin Tarantino's follow-up to part one of his vacuous splatterfest proves to be just as superfluous, if slightly less bloody. The fact that Tarrantino crams in so much style (chiefly from his love of Kung-Fu and Spaghetti Westerns) only adds to the hollow disappointment. Thurman's The Bride now has a name, but despite her supposed kick-assedness, she still cries like a girly girl more than Clint Eastwood ever would. It's hard to imagine how those of us who aren't turned on by a woman assassin's revenge fantasy are supposed to react this--I doubt Tarantino even considers such a person exists. What the hell happened to the nascent grown-up behind Jackie Brown? With David Carrandine, Michael Madsen, and Darryl Hannah.
The Passion of the Christ **
Oh, how Ye--I mean, we--suffer! Shockingly literal retelling of the last hours of the life of Jesus with all the pain, torture, torment the director can muster. (Considering the director is action-man Mel Gibson, that's quite a bit.) Unlike the vastly superior efforts by Martin Scorsese and Pier Paolo Pasolini, there's no room for doubt in Gibson's vision, which neuters its potential to crossover to non-believers. Some critics have dubbed it Jesus porn, but that's unfair to pornography. People at least look like they're enjoying themselves in porn. Be warned: unless you're a fan of Takashi Miike, it's probably goriest film you'll ever see.
The Saddest Music in the World ***1/2
A treat. Winnipeg director Guy Maddin's kaleidoscopic combination of gothic melodrama, political satire, and Broadway razzamatazz is deadly funny and surprisingly moving. A legless beer baroness (Isabella Rossellini) in Depression-era Manitoba organises an international contest to find the saddest songs to sell her suds. Rossellini, styled to look like her mother, shines in a rare comedic turn, and The Kids in the Hall's Mark McKinney is a revelation as the cocksure, slippery-haired producer determined to win the top prize. Despite a considerably larger budget, Maddin hasn't abandoned the "hand-made" quality that has earned his previous films a considerable cult following. (You'd be forgiven for thinking it cost about 40 cents to make.)
