At the Film Theatre.
I've been to the Reading Uni Film Theatre a few times to date. But this year I've actually bought a membership. If I see six films during this year it will have paid for itself, and there're at least three in the spring season alone. Next week I will finally get to see the much talked-about Pan's Labyrinth. But in the meantime here's what I've seen so far.
Based on the novel by Phillip K Dick, A Scanner Darkly stars Keanu Reeves as Bob Arctor, an undercover federal agent. His identity is concealed from everyone, including his fellow agents and superiors. His job is to identify suppliers of the drug Substance D, known in the lingo of the streets as Death. But the only way to get close to a dealer is to become a client, thus he must become an addict himself.
The long-term effect of the drug is a state of dissociation in which he is no longer able to perceive the cover role he plays, sending his own investigation down blind alleys in pursuit of a suspect he is unable to perceive as himself.
The film blurs the line between reality and hallucination, with animation layered on top of the actors' performances giving the same texture to both. The story flips easily between the paranoia of its lead character and the humorous situations he gets into with the crowd he is forced to hang out with while undercover, none of whom have much more grasp on reality than he does (the note-on-the-front-door sequence is a comic gem of stoner logic). But it builds to a chillingly bleak finale, as we are shown the truth of his role and the price he has to pay for it.
I read the book some years ago and found it somewhat impenetrable (PKD had amazing ideas, but he never had the prose to match.) The movie paints a clearer picture, allowing you to watch the story from outside, not through the increasingly dissociated eyes of Arctor himself. Whether you're a fan of PKD's work or not, if you're a fan of intelligent filmmaking this is highly recommended.
Little Miss Sunshine tells the moving tale of one family's journey from Albuquerque to California so their seven-year old daughter can enter the Little Miss Sunshine beauty pageant. One somewhat dysfunctional family.
Olive is a rather plain little girl who nonetheless dreams of being Miss America. Olive's brother Dwayne is an emo teen who reads Nietzche, wants to join the airforce and fly jets, and has taken a vow of silence until he achieves that goal, or at least gets the hell out of the house. Their father, Richard, is trying to get himself published as a self-help guru, which is driving his wife Sheryl nuts as she struggles to make ends meet. They're also having to look after Sheryl's brother Frank, the nation's foremost authority on Proust, in the wake of a recent suicide attempt. Olive's preparations for the pageant are therefore left in the hands of her grandfather, who habitually locks himself in the bathroom where he can snort cocaine in peace.
"Pretend to be normal" Richard tells everyone as they're about to be pulled over by a cop. They're traveling in a VW van, on a road trip which will see all of their hopes and dreams gradually fall apart before their eyes, but somehow, for Olive, they keep going. But once they get there, how will a bunch like this fit into an unreal environment like a beauty pageant?
It sounds like a recipe for cruelty at their expense. But all the characters gradually reveal themselves to be deeply sympathetic and somehow arrive at the end together in a spirit of new hope. And while the older characters are the ones writ large, it's their pursuit of Olive's dream, the only dream they have left intact, that holds them all together. Likewise with the cast; while the adults get the more OTT parts, it's Abigail Breslin's beautifully understated performance as Olive that makes the whole thing convincing.
Superbly observed, touching and farcical, Little Miss Sunshine is like watching a laugh-out-loud funny, life-affirming train wreck. Go see it.
Based on the novel by Phillip K Dick, A Scanner Darkly stars Keanu Reeves as Bob Arctor, an undercover federal agent. His identity is concealed from everyone, including his fellow agents and superiors. His job is to identify suppliers of the drug Substance D, known in the lingo of the streets as Death. But the only way to get close to a dealer is to become a client, thus he must become an addict himself.
The long-term effect of the drug is a state of dissociation in which he is no longer able to perceive the cover role he plays, sending his own investigation down blind alleys in pursuit of a suspect he is unable to perceive as himself.
The film blurs the line between reality and hallucination, with animation layered on top of the actors' performances giving the same texture to both. The story flips easily between the paranoia of its lead character and the humorous situations he gets into with the crowd he is forced to hang out with while undercover, none of whom have much more grasp on reality than he does (the note-on-the-front-door sequence is a comic gem of stoner logic). But it builds to a chillingly bleak finale, as we are shown the truth of his role and the price he has to pay for it.
I read the book some years ago and found it somewhat impenetrable (PKD had amazing ideas, but he never had the prose to match.) The movie paints a clearer picture, allowing you to watch the story from outside, not through the increasingly dissociated eyes of Arctor himself. Whether you're a fan of PKD's work or not, if you're a fan of intelligent filmmaking this is highly recommended.
Little Miss Sunshine tells the moving tale of one family's journey from Albuquerque to California so their seven-year old daughter can enter the Little Miss Sunshine beauty pageant. One somewhat dysfunctional family.
Olive is a rather plain little girl who nonetheless dreams of being Miss America. Olive's brother Dwayne is an emo teen who reads Nietzche, wants to join the airforce and fly jets, and has taken a vow of silence until he achieves that goal, or at least gets the hell out of the house. Their father, Richard, is trying to get himself published as a self-help guru, which is driving his wife Sheryl nuts as she struggles to make ends meet. They're also having to look after Sheryl's brother Frank, the nation's foremost authority on Proust, in the wake of a recent suicide attempt. Olive's preparations for the pageant are therefore left in the hands of her grandfather, who habitually locks himself in the bathroom where he can snort cocaine in peace.
"Pretend to be normal" Richard tells everyone as they're about to be pulled over by a cop. They're traveling in a VW van, on a road trip which will see all of their hopes and dreams gradually fall apart before their eyes, but somehow, for Olive, they keep going. But once they get there, how will a bunch like this fit into an unreal environment like a beauty pageant?
It sounds like a recipe for cruelty at their expense. But all the characters gradually reveal themselves to be deeply sympathetic and somehow arrive at the end together in a spirit of new hope. And while the older characters are the ones writ large, it's their pursuit of Olive's dream, the only dream they have left intact, that holds them all together. Likewise with the cast; while the adults get the more OTT parts, it's Abigail Breslin's beautifully understated performance as Olive that makes the whole thing convincing.
Superbly observed, touching and farcical, Little Miss Sunshine is like watching a laugh-out-loud funny, life-affirming train wreck. Go see it.