THREE A- FILMS!!!!!!! MY WEEK WITH MARILYN, HIPSTERS, SLEEPING BEAUTY, plus THE REIVERS w/ Steve McQueen

Other distractions the past two weeks have limited my movie watching, but the three newest arrivals have all been tops.

At first I was a bit disappointed that the true life characters in MY WEEK WITH MARILYN (Laurence Olivier, Marilyn Monroe, Sybil Thorndyke, and Arthur Miller) did not really look so much like the iconic images we see of them. In other words, these are not impersonations, per se. But as the film progressed, I cared less and less that they were not look-a-likes, but became more impressed that the characterzations were actually quite sharp and seemed very real. Especially impressive is Michelle Williams as Monroe, who seems vulnerable one moment and then switches gears impressively to almost "vamp" it up as the public Marilyn the next moment. The film is based on a true story by a young "gofer" who is assigned to keep an eye on Monroe during the British shooting of THE PRINCE AND THE SHOWGIRL (1958) and to report back if she had trouble with drugs or alcohol. The film becomes an interesting document on the pressures of film-making and noterioty, and inspite of the limited focus of the story, becomes another BBC triumph of quality productions that have the power to move an audience as well as entertain. GRADE--------A-

A new Australian film produced by director Jane Campion and directed by Julia Leigh
called SLEEPING BEAUTY is one of the strongest films dealing with sexuality that I've seen in quite a while. Emily Browning, who's short list of credits include LEMONY SNICKET'S A SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS (2004) and SUCKER PUNCH (2011), is featured as a young college student who becomes a high class call girl. Nothing she's done before can prepare you for this one. She is put to sleep while a learing older man does with her what he wants, and becomes quite popluar in this "niche." The tone is implicitly explicit (without going to the X-rated) but the atmosphere becomes very insidious. At the Vancouver Intl Film Fest where I saw this in October, some of the audience was extremely uncomfortable with the film to the point of much nervous and inappropriate laughter and comments, and a few people walked out. But the film is deadly serious and dreamily photographed and so compelling to behold, that it dares you to keep watching. This is a director to watch out for.
GRADE--------A-

Last screened at SIFF in 2010, and one of the most popular films then, comes a surprising film from Russia called HIPSTERS, and it is like nothing you've ever seen from Russia before. It still has that heavy seriousness to the actors and some of the dialogue, but the film has more in common with an MGM musical, by way of MTV. Set in the 1960's, the HIPSTERS are rebels, kids who would rather wear their hair in pompodours and loud colorful dresses and shirts, than be conformists. They are experimenting with music (jazz), sex, drugs and rock and roll, and they are very Russian, still. But as with any group of experimentors (think US hippies) once real life sets in like mortgage/rents, marriage, babies, etc, the story changes focus again. But the music is fun, the costumes are outrageous, the energy is electric and the cliches are minimal. GRADE-------A-


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On DVD, I saw a modestly entertaining Steve McQueen film based on a novel by William Faulkner called THE REIVERS (1969). It tries hard to be a lighthearted, homey comedy during the first half, with luke warm conflicts between black and white folks in a small Southern town, and I wasn't so impressed. But as it progresses, the conflicts become more pointed and the drama picks up, and by the end I enjoyed the story, set through the eyes of a 12 year old boy who has misadventures with his grandfather's hired hand (McQueen) and McQueen's distant black relative (Oscar nominee Rupert Crosse) including a stay at a whorehouse, dealings with a corrupt racist sheriff and illegall horseracing. The charm and easy going personality of McQueen is undeniable. GRADE-------B-