{"id":95873,"date":"2015-05-04T14:13:04","date_gmt":"2015-05-04T20:13:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/lookingcloser\/?p=95873"},"modified":"2015-05-04T14:13:04","modified_gmt":"2015-05-04T20:13:04","slug":"first-impressions-the-salt-of-the-earth-clouds-of-sils-maria-predestination","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lookingcloser\/2015\/05\/first-impressions-the-salt-of-the-earth-clouds-of-sils-maria-predestination\/","title":{"rendered":"First Impressions: The Salt of the Earth, Clouds of Sils Maria, Predestination"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

A time-traveling terrorist hunter. A photographer who descends into the world\u2019s most harrowing hells. An actress desperate to defend her reputation and legacy from a reckless upstart.\u00a0You never know where the movies will take you.<\/p>\n

Well, actually, yes \u2014 you do\u00a0know where movies will take you. Most of the time. I\u2019m not interested in the routine \u2014 that\u2019s why I\u2019m not reporting on Avengers: Age of Ultron<\/em>. You could go see that, I suppose. It might be fun and momentarily distracting. Or you could open yourself up to something unexpected\u2026 even revelatory.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m taking a brief coffee break from a week of seemingly impossible deadlines at the office and at school just to let you know that I\u2019ve managed to\u00a0find time for three movies in the last few weeks.<\/p>\n

Two of them come from directors who are personal favorites of mine, and both of those gave me that rare and wonderful sense that I\u00a0got more than my money\u2019s worth at the movie theater. I watched the\u00a0third one at home, via Netflix DVDs, and while I can\u2019t say I was deeply moved, I\u00a0can say that I saw what I\u2019ll remember as one of the great performances of 2015.<\/p>\n

Want to get my first-impressions of movies faster than you do on the blog? Follow me on Letterboxd<\/a>, where I posted these rough notes right away. Hopefully I\u2019ll have the time to expand these into full reviews soon. But until March 2016, I am all tangled up in grad-school deadlines. In the meantime, I hope these notes will help you\u00a0find your way to a rewarding time at the movies.<\/p>\n

\"salt_of_the_earth\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The Salt of the Earth\u00a0<\/em>\u2013 from director Wim Wenders<\/strong><\/p>\n

After 40 days without moviegoing, I sure picked a winner for my return visit to a darkened\u00a0theater.<\/p>\n

The Salt of the Earth<\/em>\u00a0feels like a spiritual sequel to\u00a0Wings of Desire\u00a0<\/em>(my favorite film, by the way), taking us on journeys around the globe to bear witness to the infernos, the purgatories, and the paradises of human experience and\u00a0nature.<\/p>\n

I wasn\u2019t prepared for just how harrowing this big-screen exhibit of Sebasti\u00e3o Salgado\u2019s photography was going to be. Emotionally, this is as involving and exhausting as\u00a0Wings of Desire\u2014<\/em>but\u00a0where joy and wonder win out in\u00a0Wings of Desire<\/em>, I\u2019m going to remain troubled by this movie\u2019s various descents into hell.<\/p>\n

Wow, you just never know what you\u2019ll get with Wenders. His 3D documentary about Pina Bausch made me wish that he would make more documentaries about great artists, and this is scratching that itch. It\u2019s\u00a0a strong and moving piece of work. Sure, a lot of that comes from Salgado\u2019s images; this isn\u2019t exactly an innovative work of cinema, but I suspect that anything stylistically drastic that Wenders might have done would have taken away from the images themselves. Every transition from the photographs to footage of Salgado at work felt right, dividing the film into reasonable chapters. Wenders, narrating himself and appearing on occasion, is never as imposing or as manipulative as Werner Herzog is in his films; he inspires trust and confidence.<\/p>\n

The most daring thing Wenders does is a very effective: From time to time he brings Salgado\u2019s face out of the darkness\u00a0behind\u00a0<\/em>some of the images to narrate the circumstances of the photograph, as if we\u2019re seeing him look at the images on a screen and describe the memories they bring back to him. This works because Salgado\u2019s face is like a timeworn, weatherbeaten mountainside, and it gives us a sense of the cost of bearing witness that his words cannot convey.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m wrung out by the horrors and glories of this journey. If it plays in your town, you are blessed. It needs a big, big\u00a0screen.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"clouds_of_sils_maria_ver6\"<\/a>Clouds of Sils Maria<\/em> \u2013 from Olivier Assayas<\/strong><\/p>\n

Another ambitious film from writer\/director Olivier Assayas (Summer Hours<\/em>), and another stellar performance from \u201cLa Binoche\u201d (as they call her in France). These two make a great team. Since Kieslowski is no longer with us (and his death was, I suspect, an inspiration for part of this film\u2019s script), I\u2019m just fine if Binoche and Assayas become each others\u2019 muses for many years to\u00a0come.<\/p>\n

But the big surprise here is that Binoche and Kristen Stewart make an excellent team. Playing a frustrated personal assistant to a legendary actress, Stewart is the most sympathetic character here, and she\u2019s excellent. For a long time, I suspected that Stewart was far better than\u00a0Twilight<\/em>\u00a0let on, and I feared that that franchise would end up paralyzing her career. No worries. She\u2019s on her way to greater\u00a0things.<\/p>\n

The first 90 minutes of this film work better for me than the last 30, but there is a lot to consider and discuss here. Make time for post-viewing\u00a0conversation.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s good to feel, for the second time in a month, that I got more than my money\u2019s worth at a movie\u00a0theater.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"predestination_ver2\"<\/a>Predestination \u2013\u00a0<\/em>from Michael and Peter Spierig<\/strong><\/p>\n

Wow.<\/p>\n

Call it\u00a0Looper-er<\/em>.\u00a0(Looperier<\/em>?)<\/p>\n

And you know what, while Rian Johnson\u2019s\u00a0Looper<\/em>\u00a0is a far more accomplished film, I had more fun with\u00a0Predestination<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Looper <\/em>was an impressive Grandchild of Blade Runner, <\/em>bringing back to the big screen a kind of dark, literary science fiction that I\u2019ve been missing. But its\u00a0overbearing tone of masculine self-loathing and its unbelievably despairing conclusion kept me in the \u201cAdmiring but Not Enjoying\u201d camp. Predestination,\u00a0<\/em>on the other hand,\u00a0is so over-the-top wacky and weird, so hilariously implausible, so gender-bendery bonkers, and yet so go-for-broke in its delivery, that I was blissfully caught up in it all the way through.<\/p>\n

Ethan Hawke fans will have a blast; he\u2019s hilarious in that he plays this as if it\u2019s extremely serious stuff, accepting any bizarro idea that the script serves up. You\u2019d better be ready to give up all suspension of disbelief: This is\u00a0the kind of story that some aspiring sci-fi screenwriter starts pitching to you, and at first you start looking for a way to escape, because it\u2019s so convoluted that you feel a little sorry for him, and yet eventually you\u2019re hooked and can\u2019t stop listening because of just how\u2026 \u201cMentaculus<\/a>\u201d\u00a0it all\u00a0is.<\/p>\n

Looper<\/em>\u00a0\u2014 I can imagine that movie being somebody\u2019s passion project, one that eventually stirs up enough supporters and enthusiasm to make it to the big screen.\u00a0Predestination<\/em>\u00a0\u2014 um, no. What is this movie?! How does it actually exist? How did it get made? Why did Ethan Hawke sign\u00a0on?<\/p>\n

It doesn\u2019t make a bit of sense, but I couldn\u2019t stop watching\u00a0it.<\/p>\n

And the hype about Sarah Snook\u2019s breakthrough performance is no joke. What a stunner! Somehow, she manages to remind me of David Bowie, Tilda Swinton, and Leonardo DiCaprio all at once.\u00a0Watch out for her. This is the best\u00a0DiCaprio performance ever given by either DiCaprio or somebody\u00a0else.<\/p>\n

This.\u00a0Movie.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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