"Begin Again", feel-good hit of the summer

Begin Again

It's great that films like 'Begin Again' see the light of day. A film about making, feeling and enjoying the music. A movie about creating songs (songs where lyrics are meaningful and real instruments are played, where asses, stupidity, amount of provocative tweets &/or dresses doesn't matter at all) with enough charms and vividness to keep you smiling after the credits roll on.

Having said that, 'Begin Again' cannot compete with the sense of freshness, rawness and romanticism of the director's previous and celebrated work, 'Once', and some of the tricks that build the development of the film are so hard to believe it all relies on the spectator's shoulders. If you "buy" the story, you'll certainly enjoy 'Begin Again'. If not, it might annoy you from time to time. I encourage you to not get obsessed with verisimilitude and realism. Lower your guard in that sense.

Writer-director John Carney has created a comedy with hints of drama and heartbreaks where possibility and opportunity have the form of a three minute pop song. It's basically a contemporary, flesh and bones tale. Gretta (played with grace by Keira Knightley) and her boyfriend Dave (Adam Levine from the obnoxious Maroon 5, and yes folks, sadly enough, he sings on the movie) are not only a perfect couple but also a major creative force, landing in New York while stardom is knocking on their doors... aka a major label deal. But fame brings also the more common (along with drugs and booze) trouble and Gretta is left on her own... with her tunes. And that's when Dan (as usual, Mark Ruffalo on a solid performance), a fallen angel of a record-label executive appears, also abandoned, in terms of family & in terms of music industry. It jumps from scene to scene in brush strokes, making clear that Carney just needs an excuse, an emotional setting where he can locate his unusual music recording story. The movie really begins when Dan imagines how he could produce the aching, acoustic song a devastated Gretta is performing on an East Village venue. It's also the first of several uplifting moments on the film.

It's kind of a last chance for both. For Gretta is either trying to follow this desperate man into his attempt to record her songs or leaving the States (and maybe music?). For Dan, it's either completely sink or swim. As a feel-good movie, 'Begin Again' takes the obvious directions except in one area where Carney surprises the spectator not going for what it would have been the blandest, romantic choice. Instead, he focus just in music and New York City, the other starring of 'Begin Again' (with all my respect to my dear Catherine Keener and some other secondary roles). The idea of a "live and alive" album Gretta & Dan are aiming to record is refreshing (impossible too) and offers joyful renditions of songs played behind a summery, shiny, exuberant city. It's hard to resist, so haunting you'll forget the lame scenes/debates on music industry or Mr. Levine singing. It's the power of music in a mind-blowing environment.

SCORE: 6,75/10

"Enough Said", Is All about Chemistry

Enough Said

You already know of my personal crusade against films "about nothing". So I'll be clear from the very first sentence. Huge thanks to Nicole Holofcener for making movies about "regular people", with credible situations and feelings. The script (in this case written by Holofcener herself), I will always defend is all about the script. And the actors involved in transforming words and ideas into "flesh & bones" characters.  

"Enough Said" might qualify as a romantic comedy, and indeed some little twists here and there, plus its finale, which might be too much of a slight turn into bland, pleasant territory that "mainstream rom-coms" are exploiting ad nauseam. But this is a movie so full of honesty, solid acting and enduring charms the aforementioned little flaws become almost incidental. 

It's all about second chances, real (and therefore complex) people and their emotional fears. It's all about mature love, something that Hollywood tends to either neglect completely or transform into an extremely silly type of film. Holofcener devotes a wonderful amount of time in dissecting her main characters without failing into too narrative ventures, so Eva (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) and Albert (James Gandolfini, forever missed) are so well defined their little manias, actions and habits say enough about them. The things that are left unsaid are also there, and any viewer willing to watch the film will recognize them. This idiotic and schizo society tries to make us invulnerable, but we are (fortunately) "fragile things". Because we have feelings, and getting hurt is so frightening. "Enough Said" exposes that ugly truth with a surprising, defiant naturalness. And humour.

It might be true the subplots of the film are somewhat flawed. Marianne (played by infallible Catherine Keener) is too one-dimensional, but I guess it might just serve to counterpoint Eva's attitude towards life and love. Same can be said about Sarah (Toni Collette) and Will (Ben Falcone), Eva's closest friends and a couple always in a quite funny (and surreal) conflict and the daughters subplots (James and Eva have both daughters) might have some more poignancy, as involves some more interesting characters (also a curiosity, Tess, James' daughter, is played by Bono's daughter, Eve Hewson) but they also remain a bit blurred, being there just for the purpose of completing the detailed picture of James and Eva.

Julia Louis-Dreyfus and James Gandolfini are excellent in their performances as Eva and Albert, making every bit of their relationship so credible and endearing. I guess the combination of great script plus great actors still gets the job done (let's hope someone in Hollywood listens). They both carry the weight of their pasts, the failed marriages, the challenges with the growing daughters about to become fully independent (the "empty nest" syndrome) and, foremost, the clash between their life as independent individuals and the chance of being with someone again. The chemistry between the actors is undeniable and every time they share the screen the movie goes way beyond your average, light-hearted comedy. Here's a heart.

And chemistry is precisely the key, the message of the film. You have to risk yourself, defeat your understandable fears, when romance appears. That Holofcener uses a trick (no spoiling) to make Eva decide between the information about James she gathers from an unbeatable source and her own feelings is just a comedic resource. But also an interesting one about perception, misjudgements and excuses: all blatant examples of our human weaknesses. At the end the wise director makes a clear bet, but without a happy ending guarantee. Will it work? Who knows, but it's worth trying. Like Woody Allen would say (check his masterpieces "Annie Hall" and "Manhattan" if you like this film). We (still) need the eggs.

SCORE: 7,25/10

"Synecdoche, New York", biggest paranoia ever filmed

Synecdoche, New York

Another example of a movie released years ago (the film is from 2008), that never make to Spain, due to the singular "criteria" of distributors and cinema owners of this country. But they can keep accusing everyone of piracy... End of the rant.

Is kind of surprising, but in a very positive way, that in a time were cinema is only interested in selling tickets with unnecessary remakes, bloody awful pirates and superhero movies, there's still a chance for a film like "Synecdoche, New York". A very personal view of an author, Charlie Kaufman. The man behing the scripts of some of the most risky and brave films from the last decade, like "Adaption" or "Being John Malkovich". And co-responsible, with Michael Gondry, of one of the best films ever, "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind".

"Synecdoche" is Kaufman's debut as director, and also his most ambitious film, in terms of conception and ideas. It builds on recurrent subject themes of his previous work, but mostly, and being a film about creating art, is easy to link it particularly with "Adaptation". But its a, staggering, XXXXXL version of that film. It might be the biggest paranoia ever filmed.

It also equals the level of pessimism of "Eternal Sunshine", maybe even goes further. Caden Cotard's (Philip Seymour Hoffman) extreme hyponcondria won't make you laugh, it is crude, and his struggle is condemned well in advance with paranoia. Humour, if any, only masks weaknesses or adds a feeling of surrealism to the lightest consequences of the monumental synecdoche that his impossible play is. Because the movie is about a play. The most realistic, and poignant, play ever made, about life and its obstacles. A play that intends to be a perfect copy of Cotard's tragic life, and the people that surrounds it.

"Synecdoche" is not an easy film, far from it. It demands patience to the spectator, and some sort of special stomach, because the majority of people that are going to expose their lives in front of our eyes, are damaged. As a film it has flaws, biggest ones in my opinion being the slow start, hard to get attracted to start, and a slight feeling of pretentiousness. But if you give a bit of credit to Kaufman, the challenge of watching the film turns into an absorbing and moving experience.

Some credit should also be given to the cast. What an stellar one! Hoffman, again, is perfect on his tortured role, and you will feel compelled by his mistakes and pains as the movie develops. At the end, Cotard's life is being showed in all honesty. And it is as imperfect as human. And surrounding him, a special credit has to be given to Samantha Morton (Hazel), the always excellent Catherine Keener (Adele) and the equally great Michelle Williams (Claire). They are essential to explain Cotard's life. And his play. And they sustain the film.

"Synecdoche" is a failed masterpiece that tries to find an answer to existence. It attempts to achieve levels of profundity unparalleled in cinema. Conclusion? Mine is that at the end, existence is what we make of it, because we have the starring role in the play that is our life. It is an exclusive role, and no one else will play it. So we better learn how to play well. Because the world, our stage, won't wait for us. It might not be the perfect film, but the risk and brave attempt of Kaufman has to be loudly praised.

SCORE: 7,25/10