The Snowman

The Snowman (2017)

Starring Michael Fassbender, Rebecca Ferguson, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Toby Jones, Val Kilmer, Chloë Sevigny, and J.K. Simmons

Directed by Tomas Alfredson

Written by Peter Straughn, Hossein Amini, and Søren Sveistrup

***This film is currently streaming via HBO***

Summary (in 500 words or less):  Norwegian detective Harry Hole (Michael Fassbender) and his fellow detective (Rebecca Ferguson) investigate the disappearances and subsequent murders of several women in their jurisdiction by an apparent serial killer who leaves a snowman as his calling card.

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating: C

Movie Review - Nymphomaniac: Vol I and Vol 2

Nymphomaniac: Vol 1 (2014)

Starring Charlotte Gainsbourg, Stellan Skarsgård, Stacy Martin, Shia LaBoeuf, Christian Slater, Uma Thurman, Sophie Kennedy Clark, and Connie Nielsen

Directed by Lars von Trier

***This film is currently streaming on Netflix***

Nymphomaniac: Vol 2 (2014)

Starring Charlotte Gainsbourg, Stellan Skarsgård, Shia LaBoeuf, Jamie Bell, Mia Goth, Stacy Martin, and Willem Dafoe

Directed by Lars von Trier

***This film is currently streaming on Netflix***

Well, that was four hours of my life that I can't get back...then again, maybe it was worth my time after all.  That's the problem with Lars von Trier -- I despise and appreciate his work at the same time.

Oh, Lars von Trier.  I experienced five of your films now (six if you count Nymphomaniac as two films) and you're a weird son of a gun.  Nymphomaniac is the third and final film in von Trier's "Depression Trilogy" following Antichrist and Melancholia, and, much like those films, it's all pretension and very little substance.

Nymphomaniac follows Joe (Charlotte Gainsbourg) who is found in an alley by a man named Seligman (Stellan Skarsgård) after she is beaten up.  Seligman takes Joe to his house to recover and Joe begins to tell Seligman her life story through her sexual experiences.  Why does she do this?  I don't know.  Shock effect? Her nymphomatic tendencies?  Because screenwriter Lars von Trier is a weird guy who likes to think he's pushing the envelope whenever possible?  Probably the latter as von Trier takes the approach here of being as graphic as possible including scenes of unsimulated sex in order to be risky and adventurous (but never stimulating or titillating).

Oddly enough, however, despite the heavy-handed nature of the piece and von Trier's incessant need to be provocative, the acting of everyone elevates this to something that at least makes the four hours not a boring sexual epic.  The best of the bunch is Stacy Martin in her first role as the young teenage/twentysomething Joe.  This is an extremely tricky role -- addicted to sex, yet emotionless when undertaking these sexual activities, Martin's Joe is a girl of few words, yet I found myself riveted with her story.  Martin certainly is the focus of Volume 1 with Charlotte Gainsbourg taking more of the reins in Volume 2 and the second film suffers for it.  Gainsbourg is fine, but the film becomes a bit too depressing and melancholic to be all that riveting.  Shia LaBoeuf and Uma Thurman also put in some nice turns, but neither are in either film for an extended period of time.

I appreciate Lars von Trier artistically as a director and I like what he visually brings to the screen.  As a writer, von Trier leaves quite a bit to be desired and that's where my constant see-sawing of "Did I like this or did I hate this?" comes in whenever I watch one of his films.  His pieces never work as a whole and Nymphomaniac is no exception.

The RyMickey Rating:  C (Volume 1)

The RyMickey Rating: C- (Volume 2)

Movie Review - The Tree

The Tree (2011)

Starring Charlotte Gainsbourg, Morgana Davis, and Marton Csokas

Directed by Julie Bertuccelli

***This film is currently streaming on Netflix***

Not to be confused with The Tree of Life reviewed earlier this week, the Australian flick The Tree is similar to that aforementioned film in that both deal with death and its effect on those whom the deceased leaves behind.  The Tree is a much more straightforward film, however, when compared to Terrence Malick's sometime stream-of-consciousness filmmaking technique.  Unfortunately, The Tree is a tad bland with a story that meanders a bit too much despite a nice performance from the always reliable Charlotte Gainsbourg.

After the sudden death of her husband, Dawn (Gainsbourg) is finding it devastatingly difficult to make it through life.  Her four children try their best to move on and help their mother move past her grieving process, but they're finding that task quite unnerving.  When eight-year-old Simone (Morgana Davis) believes that the aura of her father is alive in the gigantic fig tree next to their home, she finally finds something that will get her mother out of bed.  Despite her better judgment, Dawn discovers that she genuinely feels the presence of her husband in the tree.  However, when the growing tree begins to impede upon their house, the family finds itself forced to make some difficult decisions (complete with completely obvious metaphors).

For a movie that's all about death, The Tree simply comes off as too slight and rather silly.  Ultimately, I bought the premise while watching it, but reflection has caused the film to not sit as well a few days later. Admittedly, Charlotte Gainsbourg is quite good as the grieving and tense mother.  I was unfamiliar with her work prior to last year, but since then, I've been very impressed with her recent repertoire of Antichrist, Melancholia, and this.  Unfortunately for Gainsbourg, her performances are simply too good for these movies she chooses.  Morgana Davis was at times near perfect in her role as a the young daughter, but then had several moments of being that "obnoxious" smarter-than-she-should be character we all hate in movies.

The Tree is a pretty film, but never quite succeeds at providing the drama that a movie with this theme should create.

The RyMickey Rating:  C

Movie Review - Melancholia

Melancholia (2011)

Starring Kirsten Dunst, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Kiefer Sutherland, Alexander Skarsgård, Stellan Skarsgård, and Charlotte Rampling

Directed by Lars von Trier

***An early review -- This film arrives in local arthouses on Friday***

Melancholia is, by definition, a sense of sadness and the dour atmosphere of Lars von Trier's Melancholia is enough to send one into a depressive state.  This is a film that just reeks of self-importance and self-indulgence and despite some solid performances, I found myself unequivocally disinterested in the whole affair.  Ultimately, the overarching problem with the film is a main character who is so oddly unbalanced that I never once got a sense of who this person was or why she was acting in the manner that she was.  This proves to be a nearly insurmountable problem with Melancholia despite a final hour that was surprisingly tense and well-executed.

That aforementioned problematic character is Justine (played by Kirsten Dunst who won Best Actress at the Cannes Film Festival this past May), a young woman whom we meet on her wedding day as she arrives at the reception held at a fancy country club owned by her brother-in-law John (Kiefer Sutherland) and her sister Claire (Charlotte Gainsbourg).  She is seemingly happy, fawning over her new husband Michael (Alexander Skarsgård).  Sometime in the night, though, things seem to fall apart for Justine and she retreats from the festivities, falling into a depression that just simply doesn't seem warranted (or, if warranted, comes on much too quickly and intensely), causing her to do things that seem so incredibly out-of-place thereby ruining the "credibility" of the character for me.

Part One of the film focuses on "Justine," but the much more successful Part Two focuses on her sister "Claire."  At the beginning of the film, we are treated to an odd eight-minute long wordless dreamlike sequence set to classical music detailing an apocalyptic moment.  It is in Part Two that we begin to realize what the heck that opening barrage of images was all about.  After having welcomed an almost catatonically depressed Justine back into their country club home, Claire is worried about the fact that a rogue planet called Melancholia is set to pass by Earth, just missing a catastrophic collision.  While her astronomy-nut husband John tries to console her, Claire finds herself slowly slipping into a state of depression.  Unlike Justine's depression, however, Claire's emotional state feels legit -- she's got a young son and the thought of the world ending is intensely foreboding.

While I may not have understood the emotional state of Justine at all, I will say that Kirsten Dunst is in top form and I blame director-writer Lars von Trier for crafting an unbalanced character rather than harp on Dunst for the flaws.  Dunst particularly shines in Part Two (as does the whole movie in general) thanks to interactions with the wonderful Charlotte Gainsbourg who, unlike Dunst, is given a character with an arc that is fully believable.  Because of this, Gainsbourg's emotional journey is the one which the viewers will respond to the most and the film's final moments are rather riveting because of this.  [I should also note that I was rather surprisingly impressed by Kiefer Sutherland here, portraying (at least outwardly) the only sane person amidst this group of crazies.]

Melancholia is at times a beautiful film.  There are images that are sometimes stunning to look at.  The film's final moments are pretty good (perhaps even verging on great) cinema.  However, the great forty-five minute finale can't negate the fact that the film's opening ninety minutes are intensely flawed due to the fact that the main character rings so untrue.

The RyMickey Rating:  D+

Movie Review - Antichrist (2009)

Starring Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg
Directed by Lars von Trier

This film has been quite the hot topic, getting booed at Cannes this past summer, and is becoming quite well known for its graphic nature. Having seen it now, I am either too dumb to understand this movie or too intelligent to take its bullshit. I'm gonna go with the latter because I'm pretty certain I understand what was being said and simply think that it's ridiculous.

The film starts with an absolutely beautifully shot black and white "Prologue". As classical operatic music plays, we see a man (Defoe) and a woman (Gainsbourg) having sex (complete with what appears to be actual sex onscreen) while their toddler-aged son makes his way out of his crib, only to climb onto a windowsill and fall several stories to his death out an open window. During this opening five minutes, I was struck by how truly exquisite this flick looked -- just stunning in the way it was filmed. While the film continued to look nice, the story just fell apart after this Prologue.

As the film progresses, the Wife (we don't learn names of the characters) experiences terrible grief over her son's death, feeling responsible for failing to keep him safe. The Husband is a therapist and He tries to help his Wife through her troubles by having her face her fears. Through some convoluted and ridiculous psychological mumbo-jumbo dialog, He learns the She is most afraid of Nature and their "vacation home" in the forests which they call Eden. He decides that the best therapy is to take her to Eden, but upon their arrival, She begins to spiral out of control.

Maybe as a story this would be fine (maybe...), but director Lars von Trier throws in so many moments of symbolism -- a talking fox, a baby bird being eaten by ants, the Wife literally becoming one with Nature -- that it just becomes too difficult to keep up with what he's trying to say. Part of me does think that as some have said that this is von Trier's complete dismissal of the female gender, depicting that they are nothing but a weight to hold men back from life (this "weight" metaphor takes on quite a literal meaning at the end of the film). As She studies the abuse of women over time, She slowly turns into this devilish über-bitch who only wants to abuse men.

The other part of me thinks that's all a crock.

This is the thing, though...I may have disliked many things about this movie, but I wasn't the least bit bored by it. And I'm certainly still thinking about it many hours later. The cinematography by Timothy Dod Mantle is gorgeous. The black-and-white scenes that bookend the film are stunning and the rest of the film looks great, too. And Willem Defoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg both make the best of the difficult roles they were given (unfortunately Defoe is given some stupid lines to spout in the first 45 minutes that no one would be able to make sound "normal").

So, despite the fact that I bashed the movie at the beginning, I'm certainly happy that I watched it and I would recommend it to those who are interested in film because it's certainly unlike anything you will have ever seen.

Pretentious? Certainly.
Good? I'm not sure...

The RyMickey Rating: C