Desert Bloom

Living in a part of the U.S. where there is definitely a winter (Chiberia, anyone?), I thought I would try to find a film taking place in a hot locale for a change.

When I picked up this movie, for some reason I thought Christine Lahti starred in it and that it was a contemporary film (I confused it with a film called Housekeeping). She does narrate as the adult version of the character played by Annabeth Gish (though Gish doesn't even get a credit on the VHS box despite being the central character).

Gish plays Rose, a 13-year old living in Las Vegas during the Korean War era, on the cusp of A-bomb testing. Her stepfather (Jon Voight) is unstable and abusive and her mom (JoBeth Williams) tries to hold things together. Although stepdad is at times loving, his behavior becomes increasingly less so when he drinks and when he has PTSD/hallucinations from WW2 service, which as we know now was not well-diagnosed back then. Mom starts becoming more independent by working outside the home and trying to keep a cheerful face when he has to spend some time in an institution due to the stress. Rose though, as a child, still cannot understand what is happening to her stepfather, and can only relate it to herself: the abuse, what she perceives as his hatred of her. Small gifts she gives him are looked on with distrust and paranoia.

A glamorous aunt (Ellen Barkin) visits after a breakup, at first a breath of new life then straining the family. She is at first seen as glamour and happiness, but her relationship troubles and intrusion at a difficult and tenuous time for the family affect them negatively and then causes a betrayal for Rose. Her "makeup" with Rose was too

Allen Garfield plays an astute sympathetic teacher, Jay Underwood a nice guy friend.

QWERTY

This indie romance focuses on the relationship between two outsiders. An oddball guy Marty (Eric Hailey) working as a security guard at a mall loses it when he complains about a $50 pair of trendy underwear, thus losing his job. But a quirky customer Zoe (Dana Pupkin) defends him and they start a romance despite his apparent misanthropic personality.

Zoe works at the DMV sniffing out licentious license plate numbers/words to revoke, and gets Marty a new job at the complaint desk where his pessimistic character is fulfilled. She eventually reveals her love of the word game Scrabble despite being shy about joining a Scrabble club at a library. Each brings out the unfulfilled character of the other.

But as expected, there are obstacles.  Zoe brings Marty home to meet the family but it doesn't go well as even she doesn't get along with them. Marty begins to feel like an outsider again, although he encourages Zoe to indulge her love of Scrabble, enough so that she gets over her shyness and enters a Scrabble championship, where she goes up against the narcisstic defender of the title. Filmed in Chicago.

I'll Come Running

I think is hard to categorize this movie as it has elements of an independent, foreign, romance, drama, and light comedy script. I would categorize it most as an independent drama.

A Danish tourist, Pelle (Jon Lange) is in Texas with a couple friends. They are at a Mexican chain-type restaurant where they flirt briefly with the waitresses, one whom forms a quick bond. Veronica (Melonie Diaz) claims not to be able to pronounce Pelle's name so nicknames him Milhouse from The Simpsons cartoon TV show character (Milhouse is sort of a geek/milquetoast) after they have some repartee about that show. Pelle in turn nicknames her Lisa, also a character from The Simpsons, and they address each other with these names throughout this story.

Pelle gets a message from a friend at home, Soren (Christian Tafdrup), who has gotten a job for him, so Pelle decides to cut his vacation short as his vacationing friends move on. He changes his flight but has a day more before his flight leaves, so Veronica/Lisa and her roommate invite Pelle to a party, after which Pelle/Milhouse stays the night since he has nowhere to stay. He and Veronica have some casual sex and bond a little over the next day or so, but Veronica often reminds him about the impermanency of their relationship, and gets him to get in a cab to return to the airport.

Unfortunately a tragedy happens and despite Veronica's knowing very little about Pelle (not even his real name) she impulsively goes to Denmark, and manages to get inside his apartment. His friend Soren is dismayed to learn the bad news and can't seem to get over it. He seems to have his heart on his sleeve in a way about Pelle. Soren embellishes Veronica's relationship to Pelle's parents, making her more important in Pelle's life than she was.

Robot & Frank

This story is about an aging man who is refusing to acknowledge the problems of his advancing age, at the same time those around him are not connecting to his frustrations about being independent while growing old.

Frank (Frank Langella) lives alone but his children, especially his son Hunter (James Marsden), feel that his growing forgetfulness needs to be monitored full time.  Despite Frank's stubbornness, Hunter insists on providing a helper robot to live with Frank, to perform housework and monitor his health signs, and thus hopefully giving them (Frank and son) some independence from each other.  Frank will get less nagging from his kids to live healthier, and Hunter will be able to devote more time to his own family rather than his father, who lives far from him.

As expected Frank initially does not take kindly to the robot.  Frank longs to stay in the past, which is shown in the sorts of forgetful memories he has--a favorite restaurant has closed down years ago, and son Hunter is no longer a student at Princeton.  Frank also has a sparkly eye on the local librarian (Susan Sarandon), but the library too is being infiltrated by machines, so much so that the library is being digitized and old books are being gotten rid of.

Frank discovers the robot (voice by Peter Sarsgard) does not have any moral limitations, so he teaches it how to pick locks and rob things, a quasi secret from Frank's past.  This leads to suspicion of Frank when jewels go missing, and he begins to see how he and the robot have a lot in common--essentially, the risk of wiping the robot's memory since it has recorded all of Frank's movements--Frank equates this to his own increasing memory loss.

Stanley's Gig

Longtime ukulele enthusiast Stanley (William Sanderson) has a small dream of playing his ukulele on a cruise ship to Hawaii. He is invited by an administrator (Stephen Tobolowsky) to play for some seniors at a home, as a form of music therapy. They love his music because he plays all the old songs they know. He meets a cranky senior who used to be a pretty good jazz singer in her day (Marla Gibbs) and part of the film is his drawing her out to realize her talents again. He continues to visit her although she ignores him.

The other part of the story is Stanley trying in earnest to gain a place to perform on a ship, despite those making the decision thinking he and his instrument are old fashioned and corny. Stanley's status is also jeopardized by his alcoholism. He is helped by a friend (Faye Dunaway) who volunteers at the church, but she also is honest with him about his sometime childishness, which we see frustrates her.

Spaceman

This low-budget sci fi looks like it was filmed in Chicago. There are really no actors I know in it, but it was written and directed by one of the guys who founded the satirical paper The Onion, Scott Dikkers.

The mysterious story--a boy goes missing, was it an abduction by aliens? Years later, some Feds analyze a mysterious spacecraft. There is also an odd looking man working in a supermarket (the boy now grown up)--think SNL’s Coneheads without the cone. He’s industrious and polite, stiff and non-social. His pretty neighbor thinks he’s a sci fi nerd, the type who goes to conventions and dresses up in costumes.

Not the same old-same old: The Secret of Roan Inish / The Straight Story

Occasionally an artist will veer off the beaten path and surprise us with something totally unexpected of them. Two such examples are The Secret of Roan Inish and The Straight Story.

State-funded arts foundations

Watching a lot of foreign and small movies, I wonder at how many companies it takes fund some of these films. I am surprised there are still some state foundations able to find money to fund the arts. I've kept my eye out, but haven't seen, to my recollection, any U.S. foundations. I've seen the National Film Board of Canada, the UK Film Council, to name a couple off the top of my head.  Can anyone name any others?

50/50

It is rare that I go into a film knowing nothing about it. I habitually read up on movies that interest me to see if it is worth my dollars, whether it is for the movie theatre or a DVD rental, or not worth my time. Like many other people I hear about movies far in advance via the internet, and put them on my plate to seek out news as it gets closer to the film’s release date.


50/50 falls into the “know nothing” category. All I really knew of it was the poster, with Joseph Gordon-Levitt shaving his head while a shocked Seth Rogen looks on in the background. My assumptions were that it was a male-based comedy, perhaps with some juvenile hijinks unbefitting the ages of the characters.