I realize that this makes the third film-related post in a row for the Arts section. In the interest of maintaining diversity, I promise to vary it up in future posts. However, I recently watched a film that I feel I have to recommend.
The Rage in Placid Lake is a funny and clever work-place comedy. It is about a young man (Placid Lake) who grows up in an alternative life-style, anti-establishment family. As he learns that this worldview only seems to get him in trouble, he makes the decision to live a "normal life." To accomplish this goal, he takes a job at an insurance company, invests in a number of plain-looking suits, and engages in the standard, boring, self-important water-cooler talk that many of us have become too familiar with.
This film is fantastic. It reminds me quite a bit of Office Space, but has a unique approach to the story line and much more clever lines that nail the workplace environment on the head. I recommend this film to anyone who dreams of quitting their office jobs and leaving the daily doldrums of office life.
Here's the Amazon summary of the film:
"Placid Lake (Ben Lee) has always been different. His crayon eating scientific genius of a best friend, Gemma (Rose Byrne), also has a few issues with "blending in." As an odd fish in a sea of mediocrity, Placid's brilliant ideas are bound to get him into more trouble than success. When he finds himself flying off the school roof and breaking every bone in his body on graduation night, Placid decides to make a bid for the elusive normal life. To his parents' horror, he gets a normal job. Soon he's embracing conformity on the fast track to corporate success and making every effort to get Gemma into bed. Can Placid finally retire his rage in the pursuit of normalcy, or will his plan backfire? Winner, Melbourne Film Festival. Official Selection for Edinburgh Intl Film Festival, Brisbane Intl Film Festival and American Film Institute Film Festival. This film was also was an Australian Writers Guild AWGIE Award Winner for Best Adapted Screenplay and the Major AWGIE for Best Script. Australia, in English."
I stumbled across Film Movement when I found the movie (Grocer's Son) that inspired the previous post in the Arts section. This is an absolutely fantastic site. The goal behind the organization is to promote critically acclaimed, independent films frrom around the world, the type that win awards at the various film festival, but never receive much recognition in the mainstream media.
Film Movement offers memberships with great benefits. However, if the wallet is tight or you would rather not have another membership to worry about, the website is a fantastic resource for movie recommendations. Without committing to a membership, anyone is free to browse the site, read about movies by category and watch trailors. I have recently started checking this site for recommendations before going to the movie rental store and it has not failed me yet. Every movie that I have rented based upon recommendations from this site has been nothing short of fantastic.
This is how Film Movement describes itself at its website:
"Film Movement is a full-service North American distributor of critically acclaimed award-winning independent and foreign films. Film Movement has released films from 25 countries and six continents, including top prize winners from Sundance, Cannes, Venice, Toronto, Berlin, Tribeca and many other prestigious film festivals. Through partnerships with theaters, TV networks, wholesalers, retailers, institutions, and a first of its kind subscription service, Film Movement is able to get the films it distributes the audience they deserve.
Why did we launch Film Movement? As fans of independent and foreign cinema, we had become increasingly frustrated by the lack of access to the year's most critically acclaimed films. We kept reading about films from the major film festivals, such as Cannes and Sundance that A.O. Scott or Roger Ebert raved about, that would not be coming to a theater near you. Film choices are dictated to us by a smaller and smaller group of major studios, which decide to release films based mostly on their star quotient and “marketability”. Many of the films that we want to see get squeezed out of theaters by Hollywood blockbusters and face skyrocketing marketing costs that make it daunting -- if not impossible -- to reach appreciative audiences.
We created Film Movement because the system of releasing independent, foreign and documentary films needed to be changed. We believed that the only way to change the system was to reach out to film fans directly.
At its heart, Film Movement is a grassroots direct-to-consumer company with a dedication to getting great films seen by as many people as possible, and providing intelligent, beautiful and compelling art to an ever-growing community of consumers who want more than the standard Hollywood fare.
By supporting Film Movement, you are directly supporting independent and foreign film. This is our mission. We hope that you will join us."
I rented this film on a whim. It was one of those odd instances where it just happened to jump out at me for no particular reason whatsoever. Now I'm thankful that I followed my intuition and rented it.
I'll start by recognizing that there are some people who love independent films and there are many who hate them. This film is not for you if you do not enjoy independent films. It is also not for you if you do not like to watch films with subtitles.
What this film does have is brilliant photography, writing that captures real human relationships, and an overall pleasant mood. It is a "feel good" movie and is ideal for anyone looking for a mellow evening on the couch. A bottle of red wine makes for a good companion as you watch it.
After watching the film, I googled the soundtrack. It turns out many folks have done the same thing, but it can be difficult to find it as there is little information about the soundtrack actually available online. The main artist on the soundtrack (who you will most likely be searching for is Without Gravity, who performs the song in the closing credits called "Waterfall."
Here is the preview:
The following review was written by Stephen Holden of the New York Times:
"The rolling countryside of Provence may be a dream vacation spot, but it is the last place in the world that Antoine (Nicolas Cazalé), the sullen 30-year-old protagonist of The Grocer's Son, would like to be. In this French variation of the fable of the prodigal son, Antoine reluctantly returns to his rural hometown after 10 years in the big city when his father (Daniel Duval) has a heart attack. Someone has to run the family s grocery store while his father recovers, and Antoine s unhappily married older brother, François (Stéphan Guérin-Tillié), who stayed by their parents when Antoine fled, insists the time has come for Antoine to shoulder some responsibility. While their mother (Jeanne Goupil) has minded the store, their father has operated a van selling produce and staples to the area s mostly elderly inhabitants. This small gem of a film, a surprise hit in France, is the second feature directed by Éric Guirado, who prepared for it by filming portraits of traveling tradesmen in southern and central France. For 18 months he focused on mobile grocers in Corsica, the Pyrenees and the Alps. As the movie affectionately observes the gruff, self-reliant customers, some of whom hobble to the van on canes, it has a documentarylike realism. You grow to respect these hardy, weather-beaten people who lived their whole lives close to the land. Antoine brings to his customers the same surly, put-upon attitude with which he confronted his superiors in urban restaurants where he held and lost a succession of waiter s jobs. Brusque and detached, he repeatedly offends old folks whom his father had befriended on his rounds. Even when they voice their disgruntlement, Antoine doesn t seem to notice. It is only when he is joined by Claire (Clotilde Hesme), a free-spirited friend visiting from the city, that his attitude begins to soften. Although Claire is spending most of her time taking a correspondence course in hopes of being accepted into college in Spain, she enjoys riding around the countryside. After she suggests painting the white van in circus colors and calling it the Flying Grocery, the drudgery becomes more of a lark. As Claire and Antoine spend time together, their simmering, barely acknowledged attraction comes to a sudden boil, complicating both their lives. The Grocer s Son, which Mr. Guirado wrote with Florence Vignon, captures family dynamics with an acuteness that reveals decades of stored grievances. Antoine can hardly stand to be in the presence of a father who conveys contempt and disappointment in every suspicious gaze. The movie signals that temperamentally father and son are two of a kind. Relations between Antoine and François, who is deeply depressed and can t bring himself to tell his parents that his wife has left him, are equally tense. The mother, who loves her family, tries to keep the peace without rankling anyone. Slowly Antoine warms to the rural environment he turned his back on and, almost despite himself, begins to feel a tentative happiness and community spirit. Mr. Cazalé s subtle performance makes his transformation entirely believable and prevents this cautiously upbeat movie from curdling into a sentimental advertisement for the simple life. His performance is matched by Paul Crauchet s and Liliane Rovère s sharp thumbnail portraits of two regular customers. Mr. Crauchet s Clément, an increasingly frail widowed farmer who trades fresh eggs for staples but begins to forget exactly where the eggs are stored, is an endearing old codger who has accepted that the end is near. Ms. Rovère s Lucienne, a haughty, self-sufficient woman with a past, is softhearted under a prickly exterior and has a wicked, deadpan sense of humor."
Today, I visited Jim Henson's Fantastic World, a traveling exhibit that gives people a first-hand look at the work of Jim Henson. This is, unquestionably, a fantastic exhibit. Jim Henson is a man that I wish I knew more about. I love to learn about artists who acted on their inspirations and chose a unique route instead of bowing to the doldrums of life in a cubicle. From this perspective, Jim Henson is the token story.
We are all (hopefully) familiar with the Muppets. The Muppets have been a pillar of children's culture over the last fifty years, so much so, that we sometimes take for granted the story of of the man who created them. The Fantastic World exhibit focuses on Henson's early years and the events that led to the creation of his most famous characters.
On display are many of the original drawings by Henson that led to the development of the new puppet characters. For example, one page shows multiple drawings of Bert, which gives viewers insights into Henson's mind, showing the process that led to the final character we have come to know today.
Another great aspect of the exhibit has to do with how it tells the story of how cutting edge Henson was for his time. It walks viewers through the challenges Henson faced at the time and the risks he took in exploring the possibilities of his art, which changed the way the art was done.
The exhibit has numerous original drawings and also breaks away from Henson's most famous work by showing many of his early 60's projects. Overall, this exhibit is truly inspiring and reminds us that there are other paths out there for people who are passionate about their creative sides.
Here is what the Smithsonian Institute, sponsor of the traveling exhibit has to say about Fantastic World:
"The incredibly prolific mind of Jim Henson (1936-90) was a veritable celebration of ideas for wondrous creatures and characters, stories, songs, and imagery. From the earliest age, Henson drew pictures, wrote jokes, built mobiles, and planned whole worlds. He thought in three dimensions and experimented in a huge variety of media, both with still and moving images. He was fascinated with how ideas are formed, how they interconnect in the mind, and how they can be shared through the visual and performing arts.
Organized with The Jim Henson Legacy, Jim Henson's Fantastic World offers audiences a rare peek into the imagination of this brilliant innovator and creator of Kermit, Big Bird, and other beloved characters. The exhibition documents Henson’s process of “visual thinking” through works of art, photographs, documents, puppets and other 3-D objects, and film and video clips. Museums may create a separate activity center with the educational and interactive resources provided."
