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Following this was The Happiness of the Katakuris, my first experience with Miike. Simply put, this film is completely insane... I was laughing so hard that I was crying. Truly bizarre but worth seeing.
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Finally, someone else has seen this piece of mad genius. This may have been the funniest movie I saw all last year, promoted by the local theater as "Owing as much to
The Evil Dead as to
The Sound Of Music." When I told my brother about the exchange that includes the line "My daddy ran away with a high school girl!", his reaction summed it up:
"That is so very, very wrong. When does it come out on DVD?"
(It's out now, apparently. See it and find out why
Chicago wasn't even the year's best musical)
À la folie... pas du tout (
He Loves Me... He Loves Me Not)
Neat stuff is happening in the French film industry these days. Not that it has never been the case, but it seems like when you compare the French movies that managed to grab some notice five or ten years ago with what's coming out now, there seem to be more movies that you could show to an American audience that normally ignores subtitled movies and get a reaction other than walking out.
Part of this, I suppose, is that the younger generation of French filmmakers have been heavily influenced by Hollywood, or at least Hollywood's domination of the box office. What's neat is that even though movies like
Amélie and
Brotherhood Of The Wolf have the sort of polish expected of Hollywood movies, they still have a European feel to them. To someone who enjoys both American and European movies, it can be the best of both worlds.
I mention those two films because their respective stars - Audrey Tautou and Samuel Le Bihan are the two leads of
He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not which tells of the relationship between a young art student (Tautou) and an older cardiologist (Le Bihan) from both perspectives. The production values are Hollywood-slick; interior sets are clean and warm-looking, while location work is vibrant and colorful. The film is definitely French, though, treating adultery more casually than an American film probably would, for instance.
The actors do good work. I loved
Amélie when it came out, but upon further reflection, the title character sort of creeped me out; Ms. Tautou harnesses that off-kilter, weird sensibility to good effect here, while also seeming more real (and sexy). M. Le Bihan doesn't have quite so colorful a character (or supporting cast), but he turns in a good effort.
The script has some problems, especially in the second half. Not "this doesn't make sense" issues, but it doesn't quite trust its audience enough - one scene is replayed in its entirety from a different perspective, even though you've probably caught the ironic bit about ten seconds in. There's also a recap that challenges the one in
Signs in its... um... exhaustiveness, but isn't stitched together quite as well.
As a result, the movie falls just short of brilliance. But it's still quite entertaining, even if you don't normally go in for
le cinéma français.
½
Laurel Canyon
This is an actor's movie, filled with actors who might not get me (or others) into movies on the strength of their names(*), but are generally charismatic and interesting once you're there - Frances McDormand, Christian Bale, Kate Beckinsale, Natascha McElhone, and Alessadro Nivola. They all turn in good performances, as you might expect.
What makes
Laurel Canyon work is that the characters are neither completely generic or too quirky, but are, for the most part, likable. A lesser actress might have made McDormand's Jane into a bunch of goofy tics, and Christian Bale's Sam could have easily become bland or unpleasant. The odd number of main characters adds an element of interest in that there's no way to pair them off without leaving someone left standing (and no minor characters that can be used to make it even).
McDormand is the standout - hopefully she'll be considered the next time awards season comes around. But everything, I found, was quite watchable.
½
(*) Okay, I'll see just about anything Kate does, she's so cute, but I
was able to resist
Pearl Harbor.