Reviews

True story. True experience. It is very hard to achieve this level of authenticity that still feels larger than life. Bennett Miller, director known for his perfectionism and slow deliverance, doesn't try to mask his motives. He is very clear about the story goals.The patricide. Killing a "father". Breaking off. It is the film of Fathers and Sons, for them and about them.

"People who don't have fathers tend to have two strong qualities. One, they tend to feel that anything is possible and the other is an unrelenting anxiety and insecurity", Miller pointed out in one of the post-release movie interviews. The film raises big questions that speak to all of us. We are all somebody's children and we all have to make our own lives despite of them. How hard it is to reconcile integrity with the need to earn a living? How hard (or necessary) is to break off from your family in order to find your true identity? Can you really escape the clutches of your heritage? What hides behind the incredulous world of the rich benefactors, the fathers of "the greatest nation in the world" and their protégés?

Deep-dive, subtext, allegorical aspects are there. The facts are there; wealth, class, entitlement. It is all there. But this film is more intelligent and subtle than its elements. It is not trying to point at what is obvious or solve the crime. It doesn't tell you what to think. Instead, it is looking at the roots of these people and it allows you to determine who these people really are without laying it to your lap. And it does so in a very quiet, painful way … From the very first scene in the film, introducing Dave and Mark, Olympic Wrestling Champion brother team, the wordless expression of their relationship, naturally intimate physicality of wrestling communicates the love between the brothers. Straight to the bone, austere, tough love. Dave Shultz, the older brother and a father figure, is played by Mark Ruffalo. His character brings warmth and humanity in the mostly inhumane lives of professional wrestlers. It is a hard task and Ruffalo's performance is restrained yet deep, depicting to the last atom the complexity of a unique brotherly love. He is, also, the black mirror for Dupont, the "patron" and a self-imposed father figure. By being himself, dedicated and caring coach and brother whom everyone looks up to, Dave is unwillingly sending the hurtful message to Dupont: this is what you will never be. Not with all your money and all your power. You cannot buy love, respect nor talent. Rough fact- easy to say, much harder to learn.

Channing Tatum plays Mark Shultz, introverted emotionally troubled wrestling prodigy.Portrayed as a big gorilla that speaks physical language fluently, yet verbally and emotionally is on a level of a 5-year old. Great performance,though exaggerated to the verge of a parody… Wrestling is not supposed to feel "real" or "natural", I mean these men are treated as highly- trained cage animals and their struggles are incomprehensible to the most of the humans. They are not really expected to have weaknesses or breakdowns as the rest of us. Still, Tatum painted this character with many shades and sensibility of a broken child in need of a strong paternal presence. We never doubt his weak spot or his fragility. This is where Dupont finds him...or they find each other. In spite of his wealth and power status, Dupont suffers from the same deprivation, or depravity in his case. They are both driven by the same raw ambition to reach greatness at any cost. Vanesa Redgrave is brilliant in a role of Dupont's controlling aloof mother, an old-money heiress who drives the last nail in her son's fragile ego.

For some, the most surprising element in the film was the comedy star Steve Carell. Wtf, Steve Carrell starring in heavy drama?! Yes, all comedians have dark side, and yes, they can be really, really scary. After watching it, I can't imagine anyone but Carell in this role. His comedic sensibility, a serious committed talent and incredibly specific work found a place for Dupont's bizarre persona, and the right attitude. Even that big artificial nose and over-the-top prosthetic serve the performance legibly- an excuse to look down upon others, to distance himself even more from the "regular" people.

If you couldn't care less about the wrestling that makes majority scenes in the film (like I don't), or if you can't sympathize with the characters that hard and impenetrable, you will feel what they are feeling, and you will empathize with their struggle. Wrestling functions as a perfect metaphor. It is the most primal of sports, the one in which you bend another person to your will. Literally. The story of power and manipulation never gets old. Dave's complex relationship with his "surrogate father" Dupont communicates much more than misplaced egos of its protagonists. It portrays generations and generations of Duponts and Schultz'. I would dare to say even -one whole nation. No wonder it took years to edit and sleep on it in order for Miller to find the film's true voice…It is a very quiet subtle voice that gets under your skin slowly and gradually it becomes impossible to ignore. A lot of surplus was cut off so the voice of the film becomes this meticulous and precise- a time well used.

The final result?

Haunting, insightful and intelligent film that will probably stay with you long after you finish watching it… It is felt more that watched. Heavy stuff.

...is what seems this film is striving for at first. Ignoring Larry Clark's notorious reputation of a cinematic perv and exploiter of young, underweight and under aged non-actors (quoted: I wondered about the availability of porn everywhere and how it affected what they thought about sex, what it was, what influence it had...). He makes films about specific not-for-everybody subjects and does not hide his fascination by it. Fair enough. The problem here is not weather to approve or disapprove Clark's fetishistic obsession by young & aimless, beautiful & doomed, or his over the top raw shots of them having sex, doing drugs or shooting people (Kids, Ken Park, Wassup Rockers prepared us for it) but his stubborn persistence in denying the strength and the possible depth of the material.His lazy semi- documentaristic approach makes it all more so interesting, just that it feels as if he's not in control of the outcome...And that can be tricky if you're dealing with such cold-blooded realism. Though amazing cinematography and mood cover for the lack of narrative and acting force, Clark likes to show off his talent in photography and lets his story suffer for it.

Marfa girl revolves around a half-Mexican charismatic 16 yr- old skater boy in a self-titled town in Texas, which is another character of the movie. Located on the border of US and Mexico it is the perfect setting for all kinds of weird stories and conflicts. The mixture of locals and outsiders, "breeds" and racist psychopaths, like the patrol officer Tom played by Jeremy St. James. He is a savage and brutal sociopath that, for some inexplicable reason, gets away with everything, whether showing Adam's Mom "blue waffle" pictures or abusing every single person he meets. As we learn by the end, he is in pathological relationship with pain, weather inflicted upon him or on other people... So called "circle of violence" that goes on until something really bad happens. Though St. James' performance is great and believable in every second, I find the character in the end abruptly degraded and pushed to fit the plot assignment, pretty much like the rest of them. Marfa girl, misleading "main character" of the film played by the fresh model (what else) Drake Burnette is like a patch for the others, bringing in a breeze of fresh air and liberation from their established patterns and beliefs, but coming off more as snobby and reckless then true and free spirited. She is an Artist in residence, white and privileged but nevertheless doomed and lost as her fellow townies. Maybe that's the part I feel the most ambivalent about in Clark's films. The fact he doesn't really give any chance to his characters. As if in his eyes they are all losers by birth certificate.

There are two amazing sequences in the film that made me think it would take it to a whole new level. One is an off-beat dialogue between Adam's mother and Mexican spiritual woman and her brother, involving dead parrots and their emotional bondage with them. As weird as it may sound, this was the most genuine and natural part of the film. Second one is the sequence between the Marfa girl and young Adam where she tries to pass on her liberal, kind of feminist, values of free love and double standards in male/female relations. It's the talk that feels more natural then all the stiffed sex scenes and unnecessary violence in the end. It also shows that the actors are not really that bad or inexperienced but, actually, well directed, portraying true awkwardness of the outsiders- inhabitants of the infamous American canal. I really loved those seemingly effortless dives into complexities, coming from faces of Dazed and Confused magazine covers...I am more interested in seeing their emotional landscape,their quirky philosophies and thoughts on life then the platitude of sex, drugs and violence that fits the frame all too familiar.They are all kids (with less edge than the original "Kids") and their paths are still not determined, in spite of their aimlessness and utter lack of interest and integrity.

The end result feels as if that no-future philosophy of ghost town and its Martian Marfa citizens, so pointedly and viscerally portrayed, was forced into some kind of a tragedy just to fulfill the plot assignment.Too bad Clarke didn't feel it was worthy of more thorough investigation, or maybe he found it boring comparing to visually more satisfying exploration of his fantasies.

It is that hard. The first thought that comes to mind after watching it : It is that hard. To be great, to be amongst the greatest. This is the first and the most obvious narrative line in the film. The one that the protagonist (antipathetic friendless character who seems to be equipped with an extraordinary drive) sets as his ultimate goal. In this world purged of imperfections, faces are grim and no one looks you in the eye. The world is indifferent and you don't matter unless you do something really exceptional. Or die. There are no Grey zones, there is no redemption, no one cares. It is hard. The father and the girlfriend, the only two "human" characters, are marginalized for their mediocrity and lack of purpose and therefore, are irrelevant. We are in the mind of the protagonist whose only drive in life is to be the greatest drummer. So this is the price: in hundred and seven minutes you bleed with him, you get beaten and your spirit crushed to pieces. Time and again you get sick of the tension, of the pressure, of all that bloody jazz. Music has never been this hard. Director bashes his bat to the beat of the drum so that by the end you have adrenaline rushing and your heart pumping like you're about to have a heart attack. It is as discomforting and uncertain, as every great piece of Art should be. It is hard.

There is a great moment by the end, when the student asks his mentor, brilliantly sadistic J.K.Simmons: where do you draw the line? This is the very premise of the film and this is what the film is really about. It is far beyond the story of success or one man's journey to realize his dreams, nor is about the brutal relationship between the student and his mentor (though it examines it perfectly). The weight lies not in them but in the complete lack of empathy for them. The human characters are merely tools of a superior concept. They channel an unbridled ambition which is the core of the film, its real protagonist. For those "who hear not the music" they appear mad, or if you prefer "driven". But what if they're right?

Finally, it is a movie of our time and for our times. For generations brought up to believe they will all be great someday. Who think they've earned it with the birth certificate. Well here's the spoiler: it is that hard. I don't know if the director/writer draws from his own experience but he is definitely familiar with the concepts of sacrifice and commitment. Great job Damien Chazelle, you've earned it.