halloween trailer

Trailer for 2018's Halloween, directed by David Gordon Green. We'll seeee.... Like seeing JLC back and elements of the older pictures.

goat

Based upon Brand Land's chilling and stirring Clemson-set memoir, Andrew Neel's film Goat moves to middle-of-Ohio and depicts the behavior of bro bro broiness in its worst and saddest form: reckless frat hazing. I've never belonged to or wanted to belong to this kind of tribe so I can't really state on its accuracy but Goat is unlike anything I've seen--a somber, largely humorless and gorgeously-filmed (cinematography is by talented relative newcomer Ethan Palmer) frat movie. That could be what made Land's account and his descriptive but plain-spoken writing so riveting. The source material is a good match for co-adapter David Gordon Green (it's co-wrritten with Neel and Mike Roberts), known for his slightly off-key, observant and deliberate character portrayals. There's an added layer of timeliness to the film as it lands in America at the end of a long, hot summer in an election year that's been peppered with sexism, homophobia, and racism all rooted in the loudly-proclaimed words of a brash, obnoxious horror show of a man.

Ben Schnetzer, in an excellent, affecting turn, and Nick Jonas, who's also good, play genial brothers Brad and Brett. Brett's already solid in the frat and convinces Brad, after a traumatic incident, to join in. What ensues is a trail of down-in-the-gutter rituals full of veined-necked yelling and lots of blood, sweat, and beers. "I wanted to assault the audience," Neels says of his work. "I wanted to take them up the proverbial river, into a heart of darkness. I wanted the hazing scenes to feel as though we had fallen off a cliff into a world where rational, nonviolent behavior no longer was the norm. I wanted to try to convey what these men had to go through, and in a heightened way, convey what it really feels like to be a man, going through the world, all the time."

It is indeed sometimes a discomforting--almost gruesome watch. But Goat is also detailed with small dramas of masculine anxiety: at a BBQ, Brad is not able to connect fully over small-talk when he meets upperclassman Dixon (Jake Picking); Brett, sensing the disconnect, is embarrassed and angered and consequently berates his brother. What is the code, what are the appearances and manners one should already have and adapt in this dumb boy cult? Perhaps every association has its own absurdities--unspoken or not. As a washed-up man-child alumni, James Franco pops up in an endearingly over-the-top cameo which begins harmlessly and amusingly and concludes dismally. In paralleling the hazing with Brad's past experience as a victim of physical violence, the movie richly displays the contrast between street punks and college-educated punks in the eyes of law enforcement and society. Even the college administration itself is oblivious--perhaps knowingly by choice--in distant, cozy offices--a dry-cleaned blazer hung on a door. ***1/2


-Jeffery Berg

prince avalanche

David Gordon Green is known for his broad, idiosyncratic comedies (Pineapple Express, The Sitter) and also his sprawling mood pieces (All the Real Girls, George Washington), his latest, Prince Avalanche, is a marriage of these styles.  The movie is an adaptation of a 2011 Icelandic film entitled Either Way.  Green's version is set in 1988 in the woods of Central Texas in the aftermath of a fire.  Alvin (Paul Rudd) and his girlfriend's younger brother Lance (Emile Hirsch) are camped out there, hired to repaint a road.  During their work breaks, Alvin enjoys the tranquil natural surroundings and writing letters to his girlfriend, while Lance yearns to go back into town to party and sleep with girls.  They meet a slapdash truck driver (a very funny Lance LeGault who sadly passed away after filming wrapped; knowing that it's his last performance gives the movie an added poignancy) and a hapless woman who lost her home (non-actor Joyce Payne who, found on location at the wildfire-ravaged Bastrop State Park, is an effectively haunting and wry presence here).

The two men in this story are stuck together with their boring job, both desiring to do machismo, "manly" things: Lance wants to pick up girls at pageants and dance clubs; Alvin pictures himself as a fish-gutting outdoors-man. That conflicts will arise between the two and the fact that they are pretty much failures isn't surprising in a film with this kind of sardonic tone, yet the energy and magnetism of Rudd and Hirsch, make them endearing company.  While also taking place in a rambling though sort of claustrophobic setting with the outside world referred to through storytelling, those looking for a rollicking comedy like This is the End, may be disappointed.  The humor in Prince is subtle and shaded, sometimes unexpected.  Tim Orr's camerawork lingers on the scenery and wildlife and the men's interaction with it (yellow paint runoff in a stream), offering many pretty, sun-dappled shots.  Green aptly notes that there is "a fragility" to Orr's cinematography, "it's not a super confident camera with an attitude.  It's a camera that's trying to find things and trying to keep up with the characters."  The score by Texas band Explosions in the Sky and David Wingo, with its guitars and clarinets, is a throbbing, melancholy soundscape.  Both score and cinematography are a highlight in one mesmerizing sequence when Alvin blissfully treks around the woods. Having grown up in a rural setting in the south in 1988, I was reminded of my own childhood in spots, not to mention in Lance's wardrobe--the hiked-up athletic socks and hot pinkish, purplish surf T's (the costuming is by Jill Newell)--and I appreciated the symbolic contrast of his world and interests with their surroundings. The film's choice of year also heightens the importance of letters and phone calls to the characters, particularly Alvin.  While the story seemed to try to wrap up in a bright, concise, charming way, I was more lost and struck by the atmosphere than anything else, and Hirsch's amusing, unpredictable performance.  ***

-Jeffery Berg