Frozen River
I've been anxiously awaiting my chance to catch Melissa Leo's acclaimed performance here ever since it breezed quickly in and out of theatres, and I was not disappointed. Leo stars as Ray Eddy, a poor mother of two kids struggling to get by in the north country of New York, near the Canadian border. Her no good husband just disappeared with all of their money that was set aside for her dream home, a "lavish" double-wide mobile home. In a desperate attempt to make ends meet, Ray teams up with Lila Littlewolf from the nearby Mohawk Indian reservation to smuggle illegal immigrants across the border. An outcast from her tribe, Lila is both a blessing and something of a curse to Ray, but the two form a bond borne out of desperation and fierce determination to carve some sort of life out of their bleak situations. Frozen River is unflinching and brutal, almost documentary like in it's presentation. It's a up close look at a tiny segment of this country the likes of which we never see portrayed on film. If anything, see it for Melissa Leo's performance, but I promise you'll be haunted by the story as well. 8/10
Let the Right One In
I remember this coming out roughly the same time as Twilight did, and people telling me to ignore the bubble gum Tiger Beat film and go see this instead. I wish I could've. Both films are romantic vampire films, centered around a relationship between a vampire and a human. Unlike Twilight, Let the Right One In actually feels natural. Oskar, a lonely, bullied 12 year old boy meets an equally lonely girl named Eli who lives in his apartment complex. After an icy welcome, the two find common ground in their mutual loneliness and become close friends. Oskar, however, fails to realize that his new found friend is a 200 year old vampire stuck as a child. Eli helps build Oskar's confidence, granting him the will to fight back against his tormentors.
I'll admit that I wasn't all that engrossed by this for the first 30 minutes or so. I found the kid playing Oskar to be extremely annoying and a downright horrible actor. Then I turned the English dubbing off and went to subtitles, which helped immeasurably(I prefer subtitled anyway). One of the things you can't ignore is how gloomy and quiet the entire film is. The director really takes a hands off approach to the shooting, similar to if Steven Soderbergh had directed it. The film is violent, but there is a quiet calm to all of it. The relationship between Oskar and Eli is mesmerizing because we just haven't really seen it's like on screen, atleast not presented in a manner such as this. I'd kill to see a sequel to this film taking place a few years later when he's nearly an adult and she's still a child. One thing I didn't think of, and this is a bit of a *SPOILER* so watch out if you ain't seen it yet: I didn't even think that Hakan(the guy Eli lived with) might have been in the same boat Oskar is in right now. Think about it, he's a human living with a vampire he clearly has feelings for. Was it possible that he and she loved eachother at one time, only he kept getting older and the relationship turned into a sortof father/daughter thing? Whatever. Very good film, and one I'm dying to revisit. 7/10
Wendy & Lucy
Much like Frozen River, Wendy and Lucy is the story of a poor woman on the verge of economic disaster. She's literally a few dollars away from the point of no return, and it seems like every day a new obstacle gets laid at her feet. Michelle Williams plays Wendy, who is trying to make drive in her beat up old lemon to Alaska for a chance at a better life. More work, more opportunity, a chance to start over. We're never really sure why her life has gone so wrong, we're left to fill in those blanks ourselves. Wendy's only companion is her dog, Lucy, who she struggles to feed when she can barely find anything to eat for herself. When Wendy's car breaks down in a little eyeblink of a town in Oregon, Wendy is at her wit's end. With little left, she finally loses the one thing she can ill afford to be without: Lucy.
Williams continues to prove herself one of the elite actresses of our time. She continues to challenge herself by playing deeply intricate characters, and every single time she comes out on top. I'm not as familiar with director/writer Kelly Reichert, but based on this I'm looking forward to seeing her critically lauded film, Old Joy. She certainly has a knack for keen observation, bringing to life the severe malaise of a person who is on the brink. Wendy is a non-person, somone who's fallen between the cracks, and her story is riveting stuff. 7/10
The Lucky Ones
Road trip movies are a dime a dozen, but few are as poignant and touching as The Lucky Ones. It's the story of three Iraq war vets returning home for different reasons. Colee(Rachel McAdams) is on leave and desires to return her boyfriend's guitar to his family. He died in Iraq saving her life. T.K.(Michael Pena) took shrapnel to the groin, an injury that threatens his ability to perform sexually. And Cheever(Tim Robbins), a grizzled long-timer finally completing his service and returning home to his family. What all three find is that the world they left might not be the best place for any of them anymore.
I was surprised by how funny this film was, going into it expecting yet another somber war film about disenfranchised soldiers returning to a world that doesn't really want them anymore. There is a little bit of that, especially in a scene at a birthday party where the pros and cons of the war are discussed, but also in the almost rote way that people repeatedly say "Thank you for your service". It's always followed up by some poor attempt by that person to equate their life to the sacrice being made by these actual soldiers. But I think Neil Burger, who previously directed The Illusionist back in 2006, manages to keep the tone of the film light without losing any of the story's power. The three stars have a well defined chemistry on screen that makes you want to see them stick together for the long haul. In particular I adored Rachel McAdams as Colee, a sexy but naive woman, she seems to be from a poor background and probably joined the army out of necessity. She's a true revelation here, probably my favorite McAdams performance to date. The Lucky Ones did miserable business at the box office, but hopefully people will check out this underlooked gem now that it's on DVD. 7/10
Next up on The Queue: 2008's Killshot
