Only Lovers Left Alive: romantic decay

      Jim Jarmusch's latest Only Lovers Left Alive takes the viewer on an abandoned romantic journey across oceans and over centuries.  From the start of the feature the mood is established.  A vinyl record is spinning and the camera swirls around in an overhead shot of the two leads in different locations.  The tone is gothic and mysterious.  Jarmusch brilliantly uses a deserted Detroit and the exotically dark Tangiers to magnify the vampire characters.  Tom Hiddleston portrays Adam who is a rock musician and has the privilege of working with some of the finest musicians over the last three hundred years.  However, he is a character whom is haunted and estranged from contemporary society.  Jarmusch himself has been known to believe fervently that  in modern day society, many people have absolutely no idea what is going on.  Only Lovers Left Alive mirrors that ideology to T.  To further establish the point Hiddleston continually refers to people as zombies.  Tilda Swinton plays Eve who is a lover of the written word, music, and discovering the new over time.  They both use leather gloves to keep their fingerprints from showing up in public.  The amount of vampire feasting in the feature is at a bare minimum.  Instead the two operate like drug addicts having to get a legal fix of methadone.  Mia Wasikowska's character Ava is fantastic at being the wild card sister of Tilda.  To watch her unravel the lifestyle of Tilda and Tom is truly hilarious.  Mia represents a younger vampire who wants to behave wild and raise hell.  While Tilda and Tom are very much academic intellectuals.  The pair play chess, visit old architecture, and listen to music.  Many of the couple's conversations are highly existential and deal with subjects like art, science, and literature.  The irony of the film is that they are vampires.  The usual tropes of vampires are usually horror and fantasy based.  These are fully developed characters who breathe, almost like they have a birth defect.

In analyzing and comparing this picture  to some of Jarmusch's other work it becomes apparent that the film most closely resembles two films,  Dead Man in 1995 and most recently Limits of Control in 2009.
The frontier town of Machine in Dead Man is strange and foreboding  in much the same way as Detroit.  Dead Man has a major similarity to Only Lovers Left Alive, in which  Jarmusch radically alters the genre.  Dead Man takes the western and turns the genre into a surreal adventure story.  Only Lovers Left Alive goes from being a horror film to a an academic, sociological, and romantic story.  Similarly Limits of Control starring Isaach De Bankole is not a typical gangster film.  The structure of that movie is quite nonlinear and the pacing is quite slow just like Only Lovers Left Alive.  Jarmusch's pacing always stands out over the years because his characters never seem to be in a rush and watching the dialogue and interactions between them seems refreshingly organic.

In many ways the film could have started at any section and picked up somewhere else all bound together like a jigsaw puzzle like Pulp Fiction.  The journeys of Jarmusch's last two features far exceed the destination.  Sink your teeth into it.

                                       The Grand Budapest Hotel Enthralls ………



      As Spring is on the cusp dear cinephiles,   I would like to welcome guests from around the globe into the lobby of MR. WES ANDERSON'S WORLD.    Distinguished representatives from Austria,
Germany, France, Russia, The United Kingdom, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Greece, Romania, Czech Republic, Hungary, Spain, Italy, Poland, Belgium,  Georgia, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Serbia, Moldavia, Kazakhstan, Denmark, Portugal, Iceland, India, Mozambique, and last but not least ZUBROWKA.  

      The doors of perception have been regally opened by an auteur whom creates hallways that lead to a treasure trove of visual decadence.  ZUBROWKA created by Anderson is a state a mind.  A location that has associations with Austro-Hungarian history yet is a world all of it's own.  ZUBROWKA is the location of The Grand Budapest Hotel.  A snow globe of perfume scented wall paper, Kubrickian red elevators, and pink Mendl pastry boxes.  The look of the film is a pleasure cake for the viewer.  The Life Aquatic, The Royal Tenenbaums, and most recently Moonrise Kingdom all have been visually amazing, yet The Grand Budapest Hotel takes it to a whole another level of aristocratic European heights.  The 1968 orange colors of the common property hotel are communistic.  Watching the hotel transform from the Communist Era to it's 1930's hey day is stunning.

The acting in this film is best of any of director Wes Anderson's yet.  Ralph Fiennes takes the helm of the movie playing a concierge named Gustave H.  His performance is quite exceptional.  Fiennes portrayal of Gustave is a mix of Anthony Hopkins in Remains of the Day and the Marx Brothers.  His acting is Shakespearean, Method, and Screwball all interwoven.  Tony Revolori portrays Zero.   Tony is the lobby boy for Fiennes.  The father son dynamic between these two lonely men is amazing.  Both don't have any family.  Revolori has never acted before and is just a teen.  He goes toe to toe with Fiennes and compliments him perfectly.  The two work in a similar way as Leonardo Dicaprio and Jonah Hill in The Wolf of Wall Street.  In both films it is important to note that the extreme characters of Jordan Belfort and Gustave H can't be built without key supporting roles.  The rest of the acting in the film is amazing the A-list actors that appeared in this film for such short sequences is quite unusual.  Bill Murray, Tilda Swinton, Owen Wilson,  Lea Seydoux,  Jason Schwartzman, Jude Law, Saoirise Ronan, Edward Norton and if I didn't stop it would go on till every one seated in the Vienna Opera House is named.

My personal favorite characters were Jeff Goldblum as Deputy Kovacs, Harvey Keitel as Ludwig, and Willem Dafoe as Jopling.

Jeff Goldblum shines as a lawyer called Deputy Kovacs.  The scene of Kovacs reading the will in the Bavarian room with mounted heads and relatives is priceless.

Harvey Keitel portrays a prisoner named Ludwig and his monologue to Gustave about the situation and necessary steps for escape is hysterical.  Keitel's shaved head and tattoos are fantastic.  The prison break sequence is one of the best choreographed scenes since the long takes of entering the club in Paul Thomas Anderson's Boogie Nights and going through the kitchen to get to the table at the restaurant in Scorsese's Goodfellas.

Willem Dafoe knows how to play the strange and unusual like no other.  From Bobby Peru in Lynch's Wild at Heart, He in Von Trier's Antichrist, Jesus in Scrosese's The Last Temptation of Christ, Sgt. Elias in Stone's Platoon, man is he a chameleon.  Add Jopling in The Grand Budapest Hotel to this list.  We first meet him at the announcement of the will.  He is is clenching his fists that are covered with skull rings.  He wears black leather spats and has a long black leather trench coat.  Inside the coat is a hand made slot for his flask and pistol.  The perfect villain who rides a motorcycle and goes alpine skiing.

At the end of The Grand Budapest Hotel the viewer will feel like they have run a race through history and become connected to the personal lives off all those involved.  Wes Anderson has been condemned by many critics in the past for creating stellar visuals and poor story.  Exquisite wall paper over plot.  I find this criticism to be unjust.  I do however see how so many agree that this film is an exception for them.  The natural rhythm and nature of a hotel is transient.  So the characters even if they are short parts and not entirely connected by dialogue or have huge character development it works because they are all part of the ZUBROWKA world.  A world in which a Hotel is the centerpiece and as everyone knows it is hard to feel at home in a hotel.  Yet Fiennes, Revolori, and Ronan become a beautiful family in one.

Labor Day Ushers In New Year

      Happy Chinese New Year distinguished cinephiles, shout outs to Greece, Russia, France, India, and the United Kingdom for the hits.  This is the year of the horse!  The year the DENVER BRONCOS will win  SUPERBOWL 48!  2014 where does the time go?  As David Lynch would say it is strange.  Love is so strange.

Today I had the privilege and honor of watching Jason Reitman's latest film.  When Kate Winslet said in an interview that this was her favorite love story she has ever been a part it peeked my interest.  She was perfect at playing a depressed single mother.  At the inception she seems dead to the world and unable to function in society.  The look of the film is excellent.  Small town east coast.  The film takes place in a Massachusetts.  The story is simple yet great.  A lonely woman and an ex-convict are forced to be together.  However, the magic exists in the acting between the two actors.  Kate Winslet completely comes alive and looks like a different person in the film once she falls in love.  Josh Brolin is fantastic at being dark and mysterious.  While, simultaneously he is a amazing cook, mentor, and handy man.  The scene of the family baking a peach pie together is a show stopper.  The hunger and the passion of medieval romance is so refreshing to see in a motion picture.  I feel that all too often the magic is dissipated.  The fact that the film takes place in 1987 is a key element.  The family actually spends time together engaging in baseball, eating food, and relaxing on the porch.  It takes place in the summer time helps create a feeling of heated romance.  Kate Winslet portrays someone whom is very much a prisoner of her own life and Brolin is a prisoner.  However, the two bring out the best of each other in a remarkably beautiful way.  Gattlin Griffith portrays the son of Winslet.  The character is so well written for a kid.  I credit Reitman with having the gravitas to create a young person with so much depth.  In many ways he is more socially stable than his mother.  However, watching Winslet blossom during the course of the film then wilt is awe inspiring.

      Reitman's on a hot streak JUNO, UP IN THE AIR, YOUNG ADULT, LABOR DAY!
      Go see a film that is unlike so many this year of the horse.  Go Broncos!

Wolf of Wall Street HOWLS!!!

Dear distinguished cinephiles,

The final moments of 2013 are approaching.  Mr. Martin Scorsese has gone back to his roots and delivered his best since "Casino."  Think "Casino" meets "Wall Steet."  Gordon Gekko intertwined with Ace Rothstein.  The memoir by Jordan Belfort is equally rewarding.  I had serious doubts that the book could be adapted.  Credit to Scorsese for executing it perfectly.  Rodrigo Prieto's cinematography captures the pinks and yellows of the late 80's and early 90's on point.  The colors reminded me of
Sofia Coppola's "Bling Ring" and Michael Mann's "Miami Vice".  Jonah Hill's clothing, the bikini's at the Long Island Beach house, the yacht, and European sequences in Switzerland and Italy were all popping off the screen.  The picture clocks in at three hours, but seems like a fever dream.

The film like the memoir encapsulates the emotion of excess.  Ferraris, rolex watches, designer
suits,  diamonds, piles of physical money, sex, cocaine, ludes, and insanity.  The film makes Jordan Belfort look like Jay-Z mixed with Gordon Gekko on steroids.  He buys a yacht then rebuilds it to fit his helicopter.  Scorsese achieved this with Ace Rothstein and Nicky Santoro.  This time it is Jordan Belfort and Donnie.  Unlike Casino in which the mob is running a Las Vegas Casino with Joe Pesci as muscle, instead of murder Dicaprio is a white collar criminal who along with Jonah Hill are stripping the American public of millions without murder.

In looking at acting Dicaprio dives into the film off the top diving board.  He makes Michael Douglas as Gordon Gekko look tame.  Dicaprio seems both maniacal and driven beyond belief.  I believe it is his best work since "Aviator."  The fact that he was Jay Gatsby and Calvin Candie in such a short time period is just a testament to his range as an actor.  I am so pleased he has yet to be a super hero or do a sequel.   He plays the wolf with a roar that is amazing.  He builds a firm of blood thirsty brokers and in terms of excess there couldn't be more.  The film seems to be a study in excess and power.  Given the opportunity to leave honorably with millions he instead opted out to go to club fed for three years and be a self help speaker.  He has an all or nothing personality, which for a cinema goer is fascinating to watch.  Just like Casino there is no way that Stratton Oakmont is going to survive without imploding.
The scenes of him talking to the brokers with the microphone defines his core and who he really is.  He enjoys creating a circus and being a ringleader.  The humor in the film is hysterical and has the tone of a black comedy.  Audiences are divided about the humor, but personally I practically fell out of my seat multiple times.

Movies are always subjective and a question of taste.  Many will be displeased with this film.  I love that Scorsese has gone back to form and taken a risk.  The fact that he almost did not have final cut because it was 3 hours is a travesty.  This is the creator of MEAN STREETS.  What is happening in the world when Scorsese almost doesn't have final cut?   Well Summit Cinema is going to keep on rocking the last remaining moments of 2013 at the theater.  Shout out to the hits from France, Latvia, Canada, Russia, Vietnam, India, Korea, Australia, the United Kingdom, Tanzania, and Chile.
Break a champagne bottle on the bow of the yacht for MARTIN SCORSE he did it again in 2013!!!

Alexander Payne's Amazing Nebraska!

Dear Thanksgiving Cinema viewers, The French and the their love of cinema, Russia, Latvia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Korea, and India.  Summit Cinema has to take a step back and swallow some humble pumpkin pie.  12 Years a Slave will be my favorite film of 2013, but as a cinephile it is vital not to snub amazing work when it hasn't been screened and for this I truly apologize.  12 years a Slave was not screened at Cannes, but Spielberg and the jury picked two amazing films to be honored.  "Blue is the Warmest Color" is an awe inspiring tour de force fully deserving the Palme d'Or.  Like wise the Cannes film festival awarded Mr. Bruce Dern best actor for Nebraska and his subtle performance which is mind blowing.

It's Thanksgiving week in America and today I went to the cinema with my father.  This happens about once a year if I am lucky.  We sat together with a large popcorn and waited to be blind sided by Nebraska.  This cinematic miner's cart was loaded with humor and deep emotion from the heartland in America.  I love road stories whether it's "Badlands" "Wild at Heart" "Into the Wild" "Bonnie and Clyde" "True Romance" "National Lampoons Vacation".  Seeing America captured on film and covering regions that becomes characters of their own is fascinating.

The look of Nebraska is simple, pure, and sticks to the ribs.  Black and White is utilized wonderfully.  The towns of boarded up main streets and a solitary tavern speak volumes for our nation's economy and psyche.  The broken down ranch house where Dern grew up is sad and beautiful.  The heartland on the screeen evokes a powerful sense of place.  The "Last Picture Show" and "The Straight Story"  are two films that evoke similar feelings.

The million dollar sweepstake earnings promised to Dern is a symbol of Hope.  No matter it's legitimacy he is determined to travel the distance of 4 states to collect.  Dern captures the walking of a senile man with dementia seamlessly.  Whenever we see him walking on the side of the road he seems almost biblically determined.  He fades in out of obscurity through out the film.  A variety of responses occur when his son Will Forte calls him.  He say's DAD!  And Dern finally responds through out the film as if he were dreaming in the clouds.  The humor of the film is a backbone.  The brothers, the mother, ex lover, and former best friend are all hilarious.

The relationship with Father and Son on the road is beautiful. The son realizes that keeping the dream alive for the father is vitally important and will go to any length achieve this goal.  From looking for his dentures on the train tracks to driving him across multiple states.  The son wants his father's respect.  He also wants to discover who his Father truly was.  But also the son needs to heal himself and get out the rut he has dug himself into in Montana and his personal relationship that ended with a girl who has recently moved out of his apartment.

The road offers both the opportunity to analyze life and get to the essence of what it's really about.
 
Me and my father laughed loudly through out the feature.  When the son buy's Dern a compressor and allows him to drive down main street in a new pickup , me and my Pop's were crying.

Happy Thanksgiving! Thank You Alexander Payne!  Thanks to all the hits from across the Globe especially, Russia, France, Australia, Kenya, and Malaysia.  Keep on Grooving and keeping Cinema ALIVE!

12 Years a Slave is the top film of 2013!

Good evening Ladies and Gentleman.  Distinguished guests from England, Amsterdam, Trinidad, Kenya, and Russia.  Before the Palme d'Or was given to the self serving French film "Blue is the Warmest Color."  Prior to the Academy of Motion Pictures and Sciences giving a stumbling Jennifer Lawrence best actress oscar for "Silver Linings Playbook."  The same academy that has deprived David Lynch, Wong Kar Wai, Terrence Malick, David Cronenberg, Spike Lee, Fatih Akin, Paul Thomas Anderson and Mickey Rourke for "THE WRESTLER" and countless other amazing performances and directors.  Will no doubt follow form and DEPRIVE the cast, crew, and AHAB AUTEUR STEVE MCQUEEN OSCAR GOLD!!!

12 YEARS A SLAVE SHOULD BE A SWEEP!!!  I mean like a "Dances With Wolves", "Unforgiven", "Ben Hur", "Braveheart," mop up no matter how much weight McConaughey lost, how little dialogue Robert Redford spoke,  Payne shot in Black and White so what!  Tom Hanks was a Captain and Walt Disney is that a surprise?  Justin Timberlake will ruin the Coen Brothers, Gravity was the worst film of the year!  Scorsese can't pull it off this time.  Ladies and Gentleman I am loading the dice.  Breaking the Cardinal Sin of film criticism for the first time Summit Cinema has not seen half the above fall oscar contenders.  I can guarantee for the first time ever that nothing will cast a shadow this year on 12 YEARS A SLAVE.  The academy will fail as usual.  Oprah will win for the "Butler."


I knew last year at around roughly the same time that "THE MASTER" was the jewel of 2012!

These films are birds of a feather.

Steve McQueen transports the viewer into a space that is full of amazing images, savage cruelty, love, survival, and makes DJANGO LOOK LIKE TRASH!  The fact that so many critics mention Django Unchained upsets me.  They have forced me to do it.   I don't compare a serious drama about slavery from a amazing dramatic director.  To a fun Comic Book obsessed Grindhouse cartoonish director.
Tarantino's Django was a lot of fun and had good writing, but lets get serious ladies and gents it's like comparing "The Godfather"  to "Police Academy".  Both of which I like by the way.


12 Years a Slave goes for the jugular.  It leaves you like Von Trier's "Breaking The Waves" does, your not going out to celebrate and be social afterwards.  It is the kind of film that makes you question your life the medium and the craft of acting and directing as a whole.  As a viewer it takes you through slavery as Herzog takes you through the Jungle in "Fitzcaraldo" or Lynch takes you through the desert in "Wild At Heart".

Favorite scenes become difficult to decipher.  When I usually critique film I have nothing, but love for scenes that I term favorite.  This is different.  I believe these scenes are like pinatas that get cracked open emotionally and historically.  I believe this is my generation's clearest glimpse into slavery ever put on screen thus far.

Scenes:  The first beating of Solomon Northup in a darkened cell where he is on all fours and wearing a white shirt reminded me of Chaim Soutine's Carcass of Beef

Scenes:  The boat sequence from D.C. to Georgia was filled with tension like a cobra in Comparison to "Apocalypse Now"

Scenes:  The beating of Patsey by Solomon forced by Epps had myself and most of the theater crying

Scenes:  Solomon staring at the color of fruit on his pan of food to write with

Scenes:  Solomon talking to Bass about getting out

Scenes:  Solomon singing during the funeral

Scenes:  Solomon holding his grandson after 12 years

The look of the cotton fields, peat moss, sugar cane were awe inspiring, oak trees and heat set the tone.

Lupita Nyongo was show stopping especially it being her first film was unbelievable.

Chiwetel Ejiofor couldn't have done more.

Michael Fassbender was fearless and has become with McQueen what Deniro was for Scorsese in the 1970's.  (SHAME, HUNGER, 12 YEARS A SLAVE most actors get one of those parts a lifetime)

McQueen executes it perfectly:  Organic acting, superb art direction, fearless recount of authentic history!

The Academy will undoubtedly shun McQueen and the movie, but Summit Cinema salutes you Sir you are an artist in the truest sense of the word.  You are what makes going to all the bad movies worth
while.

Mark my words 12 Years A Slave will go down for years to come!!!

Fall Drama takes center stage: Prisoners

   
Dear Cinephiles the dew in the morning's and the cool breathe in the air symbolize that fall is in the air.  Special cinematic greetings to Quebec and especially Montreal for bringing out a fresh cool serious new auteuer Denis Vileneuve.   God Bless the French-Canadian in his pursuit of going head on into a subject matter that most would run to the hills from.  Vilenevue has a freshness of vision like a fall maple leaf.  His film "Prisoners" is daring and asks the viewer to be faced with a variety of moral dilemmas.  There are some parallels to be drawn between Vilenevue and Michael Haneke.  They both approach the subject of violence in a a similar way.  Both directors choose not to glorify violence and create suspense for the viewer by leaving many things unseen.

The acting in Prisoners is by far some of the best of 2013.  Hugh Jackman dives straight into a character that is completely intense.  A construction worker, hunter, survivalist, and devoted family man.  The greatest sign of Jackman's range is how he never breaks character through out the entire film.  As Keller  Dover,  Jackman portray's a character that is so typically different from his wheel house.

The best acting in Prisoners however  belongs to none other than Jake Gyllenhaal.  Arguably Jake has delivered the best performance of his career as Detective Loki in Prisoners.  Jake is a great actor "Zodiac" and "Donnie Darko" were personal favorites, but he had a child like quality in both of those features that is completely absent here.  With age Jake has matured into a part that was superbly written and directed for him.  Vilenevue claims that Jake used improvisation in two key scenes.  In the opening sequence at the Chinese restaurant where we meet Jake's character, Detective Loki it is Thanksgiving.  He is alone at night in an empty restaurant.  Instantly as a viewer we know everything about this character.  His dialogue with the waitress was improvised.  Later during the crescendo of the film.  One of the suspect's is taken into custody.   Loki comes into the interrogation room and the suspect takes Loki's gun.  He commits suicide in the interrogation room.  The reaction of Jake Gyllenhaal is one of the best examples of acting this year.  Vilenevue claims for this scene there was 48 takes.  The raw visceral emotion by Loki for the fallen suspect is so real.  The film Prisoners has a very haunting yet beautiful quality to it. Roger Deakins captures a jagged yet organic atmosphere of the small town.

Stay tuned to the fall serious drama viewers.  When films with intense subjects come into the arena in force.

Thanks to Summit Cinema's hits from France, Latvia, Quebec, and England.