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Minimalist Reviews, movies

Shadows and Fog, a film by Woody Allen

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by James Gilmore

“It’s been a strange night,” says the protagonist in Woody Allen’s film, Shadows and Fog (1991).  And a strange night it is.

This surreal tragicomedy features the bumbling Kleinman (Woody Allen) adrift and directionless in the “shadows and fog” of life in an existence where everyone else seems to know exactly where they are going and where death is a nameless killer ever lurking in the shadows.  Kleinman is invisible, a ghost in a world of flesh and a story of coincidence.

Movie poster for Woody Allen's film Shadows and Fog 1991 on Minimalist Reviews.A cursory glance reveals a clumsy film which is episodic, disconnected, strange and star-studded with actors like a pathetic publicity stunt.  However, a much closer inspection is required in order to uncover the gold hidden beneath this deceptively layered film.

Shadows and Fog is an 85-minute metaphor for life in the macroscopic sense.  Every scene is a sampling of some form of human existence, a circus filled with “theories and questions” which masks the true meaning of humanity.

Ominously looming over the film’s rich qualities are a number of detractors.  The film feels coarse and drifting, like the filmmaker wasn’t satisfied with the end product but resigned not to fix it (or wasn’t sure how).  Scenes of maladroit exposition and dialogue appear too far into the story to justify their inclusion and are all too often coupled with less-than-desirable acting and blocky line deliveries.  The episodic nature of the story serves to confuse more often than engross.  The end result is a film whose pacing ebbs and flags and whose quality is uneven.

To sum up with a paraphrase from the magician (played by Kenneth Mars): “People need illusions, like they need air.”  Cinephiles and Woody Allen fans delight, all others take flight.

Rating:  3 / 5

Minimalist Reviews, movies

The Mothman Prophecies, a film by Mark Pellington

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by James Gilmore

The most remarkable feature of The Mothman Prophecies is its arrestive visual acumen and atmosphere. Not a minute goes by without haunting imagery gracing the screen.

Movie poster for The Mothman Prophecies, a film by Mark Pellington, on Minimalist Reviews.

Unfortunately, the story is weak at best, and its interlocking pieces ragged, tired, or forced. Although the supernatural entity known as “the Mothman” is supposedly the lynchpin of the story, he need not exist at all since the plot involves a number of individuals having prophetic visions, and the fact that the Mothman sometime appears in them is only incidental. Also superfluous to the plot is the main character’s relationship with his wife (the focus of the B Story), which fails to have any conclusive ending nor any reason for inclusion in the film except as a weak initial impetus to move the protagonist to the remote location of Point Pleasant, West Virginia.

Laura Linney’s acting performance is worth mentioning. Despite the minimalist approach to her character, it proves to be one of her best performances and indicative of her serious dramatic acting ability.

This psychological/supernatural thriller is also a borderline horror, and will appeal to those in the mood for an intriguing, even perplexingly illogical, filmic experience.

Rating: 2 / 5

Minimalist Reviews, movies

The Kids Are All Right, a film by Lisa Cholodenko

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by James Gilmore

The Kids Are All Right (but the parents are not)—the anti-hollywood movie; or, an advertisement for ultra-liberal living.

Movie poster for The Kids Are All Right, a film by Lisa Cholodenko, on Minimalist Reviews. Somehow Lisa Cholodenko has managed to turn slow pacing, low conflict, and a nearly directionless plot into a film that is oddly intoxicating, sucking the viewer into a strange microcosm of uber-liberal Californianism. Although laughs are unevenly distributed, the comedy is always natural and never forced or artificial as is seen in so many Hollywood films, but grows organically out of the emotional content of the scenes. Despite its ability to entrance, the ending is so poorly handled it begs the viewer to second guess the film’s anti-Hollywood nature and instead wonder whether the filmmakers simply didn’t know what they were doing.  The final sequence—the most crucial in any film—is not only unsatisfying, but is handled with complete ineptitude and lack of relevance to the story.

Also problematic with this character piece is, in fact, character. The story could use a little more diversity among the adults, who all feel like they are part of the same social circle from the start. And while the sex of the director should not interfere with the storytelling, somehow all the male characters in The Kids Are All Right receive unfair treatment. They fail to compare in dimension and emotional presence to any of the female characters. Paul (played by Mark Ruffalo), a principal character and the lynchpin which the entire plot of the story hinges upon, disappears after an ambiguous, noncommittal confrontation with Joni (Mia Wasikowska) and doesn’t even make it to the conclusion. Laser (Josh Hutcherson) lacks both character development and depth, being stereotyped as the typical “insensitive” male in a story unevenly weighted in favor of the females. Even the extraneous gardener character, also male, serves no appropriate purpose except an artificial construct to hinder (although he fails to do so) the developing physical relationship between Paul and Jules (Julianne Moore).

Finally, the acting gems of this film: Julianne Moore and Mia Wasikowska. Mark Ruffalo also delivers a commendable performance.

The Kids Are All Right could have been a 5 / 5 film but pitfalls in character and the ending of the story severely hamstring the film.

Rating: 3 / 5