| For Tribune : ACTS OF CREATION, PROCREATION - AND RECREATION (Shortbus; Stranger Than Fiction) |
|
|
 Shortbus [8/10] USA 2006 Starring : Sook-Yin Lee, Paul Dawson Director : John Cameron Mitchell ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Stranger Than Fiction [7/10] USA 2006 Starring : Will Ferrell, Emma Thompson Director : Marc Forster ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ both films released in the UK, 1st December 2006 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ONE of the year's genuine must-see films, Shortbus is writer-director Mitchell's slightly-belated follow-up to his 2001 cult hit Hedwig and the Angry Inch. And to paraphrase Woody Allen (or was it Simone de Beauvoir?), it's also probably the most fun you'll have this year with your clothes on. The film is a deliriously uninhibited celebration of love, sex, life and liberation, mostly set in a fictional Manhattan nightclub-cum-arts-centre-cum-cabaret-cum-disco: with the emphasis, shall we say, very much on the cum. The story is relatively straightforward: two couples, one gay (Dawson and real-life boyfriend PJ DeBoy) and one straight (Lee and Raphael Barker), are encountering a tricky phase in their respective relationships. They find most of the answers to their problems in the welcoming, anything-goes environs of 'Shortbus' - emceed by the irrepressible, deliciously acerbic Justin Bonds (playing himself and shamelessly stealing every scene he's in.) Many of us never quite saw what the fuss was about with midnight-movie favourite Hedwig, and Mitchell will never be the smoothest or most technically accomplished of directors. But the visual rough edges are all part of the unapologetically boisterous fun here: likewise the fact that you almost certainly won't recognise any of the actors (some are professional, some not) on view. All of the performers totally get what Mitchell is aiming for, however, bringing emotion and depth to a script that's by no means 'just' a compendium of zinging one-liners, and which skilfully combines outrageous comedy with its more serious concerns. Readers of a sensitive disposition should note that Shortbus is nothing if not sexually explicit: the first reel alone features more penetrations, erections and ejaculations than the entire output of mainstream Hollywood over the past decade. But these "sensational" aspects aren't by any means what makes Shortbus so special, noteworthy or unusual: this is a boundlessly warm-hearted, embracingly inclusive experience of a movie - one which is especially welcome and timely given America's recent political climate of aggression, reaction, regression and repression. ON paper, Stranger Than Fiction shouldn't really work. The teaming of stars Ferrell and Thompson isn't by any means an obvious one, and any summary of Zach Helm's screenplay will make it sound like an unpromising ripoff of mashup of Charlie Kaufman's scripts for Adaptation and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. But on the screen, the picture works like an agreeably demented dream. And the 'dreamer' is Harold Crick (Ferrell), a buttoned-down tax-man who one day starts hearing a voice - not voices, just a voice. Listening more closely to these cultured, English-sounding tones, Harold realises that his life-story is being 'narrated' by an unseen author. After a fruitless visit to a psychiatrist, Harold consults a literature professor (Dustin Hoffman), who identified the voice as that of one-time bestselling novelist Kay Eiffel (Thompson). But Harold's problems may only be just beginning. For much of its running-time, Stranger Than Fiction alternates between what seem to be parallel planes of reality: Harold's hectic existence, which we take to be a product of Kay's imagination, and the author's apparently more 'real' world, in which she is goaded towards completing her much-delayed book by assistant Penny (underused Queen Latifah). The way Helm (whose first produced screenplay this is) finally brings the two 'worlds' together won't be to everyone's liking - especially those who expect to have every "t" crossed and every "i" dotted. Stranger Than Fiction (whose end-credits are, by the way, particularly nifty) doesn't "make sense" in the conventional way - but turns out to be a crucial part of its idiosyncratic charm, a twist that sets it apart from its various antecedents. This an sweetly irrational romantic comedy which makes perfect sense on the romantic, comic, and emotional levels - partly thanks to the effectively contrasting turns from Ferrell and Thompson. The soundtrack's notably well-chosen mix of pop songs and original music certainly helps, while director Forster (regaining his footing after the overrated Monster's Ball and Finding Neverland) really seems to 'click' with Helm's intentions work here, crafting a film that's often impressive to look at and jauntily charming in tone. Neil Young 21st November, 2006 (written for Tribune magazine; online publication delayed due to FDA embargo) SHORTBUS : [8/10] : USA 2006 : John Cameron MITCHELL : 100 mins (BBFC timing) : seen at Odeon West End, London (UK) 26th October 2006 - public show (paid £11.00 - London Film Festival) STRANGER THAN FICTION : [7/10] : USA 2006 : Marc FORSTER : 113 mins (BBFC timing) : seen at Sony screening room, London (UK), 6th October 2006 - press show (with thanks to Rich Cline) for original Jigsaw Lounge London Film Festival review of Shortbus - click here for an extended version of the Stranger Than Fiction review - click here
|
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
