Movie Review: "About Elly"

"About Elly": A-.  When choosing whether to fork over the price of admission, most American movie goers are much more likely to pay greater attention to the stars of a given film than the film's director.  Only a handful of directors (e.g., Steven Spielberg, Woody Allen, Quentin Tarantino, the Coen brothers) have a devoted following large enough to make a box office difference on their names alone.  Add Asghar Farhadi, the esteemed Iranian director of About Elly, to that list.  When I learned that Farhadi's latest US release was playing in Uptown, I put it on my short must-see list.  This decision was based mostly on my thorough enjoyment of his last film to play a long run in Minnesota, A Separation (reviewed here February 25, 2012; A-).

Farhadi is brilliant at taking common everyday situations and turning them into suspenseful dramatic tales.  In A Separation, things go awry when a woman who's been hired to look after an elderly homebound man momentarily leaves her post.  In About Elly, a similar lapse of duty, this one involving children playing in or near the ocean, creates chaos.  The ensuing reaction of the film's characters, individually and collectively, is very real.  One can imagine himself saying the same things, asking the same questions and going through the same emotions as the people in the film.  There is nothing fabricated or dishonest about the script, and the actors are astonishingly convincing.  Panic, fabrications, scheming, white lies, moral questions, potentially misplaced honor; they all come into play as the plot thickens.  So do red herrings; what's up with the coughing women?

The setup for the tale is a weekend outing by a group of eight adults who have a connection to a law school in Iran's capital, Tehran.  Two of the couples are parents, and have brought along their three children.  When they arrive at their destination after a long drive from the city, they are advised that the villa they'd reserved is not available because its owner has unexpectedly returned and is using the place himself.  They are offered what is described as a less-desirable accommodation on the beach of the Caspian Sea.  Although this alternative building has not been cleaned and has no cell phone or internet connection, the group decides that staying there is preferable to canceling their plans altogether.  But as the manager leaves she cautions them, "Be sure to lock the door at night."

We quickly find out that three of the couples, including Sepideh (Golshifteh Farahani) and her husband, are married.  The fourth male, Ahmad (Shahab Hosseini), is a newly divorced friend who is visiting from Germany.  The fourth female, Elly (Taraneh Alidoosti), is the single kindergarten teacher of one of the kids and has been invited by Sepideh.  As the adults are cleaning up the place, there is a lot of playful banter, especially among the males who are prompting Ahmad to hit on Elly.  Elly is friendly, but on the bashful side.  She seems alone in her thoughts and sometimes strays from the group, heading into the kitchen or out on the front porch.  Whether she is receptive to the idea of hooking up with Ahmad is hard to gauge.

One of the many interesting aspects about this story is that the muslim religion influences the action.  The women are, for the most part, respected by the men, yet the difference in power between husbands and wives within the respective families is clear.  Also, when the group first arrives at the rental establishment, Sepideh tells the manager that Ahmad and Elly are newlyweds.  This lie is necessary because religion and culture would not tolerate two unmarried people of the opposite sex sharing living quarters.

The poster advertising this film is noteworthy for two reasons.  First, as a public service announcement, I will advise you that the character whose picture dominates the poster is not Elly; it is Sepideh.  I point this out because initially I had a hard time distinguishing between those two characters, and the fact that the poster featured a female other than the title character contributed to my confusion.  Eventually I identified them by the solid colors of their omnipresent scarves -- Elly reddish brown, Sepideh green.  That worked until the next day when those two women wore different color scarves.  I should have known, especially being married to Momma Cuan, that a woman would travel with more than one scarf!

Second, and more importantly, one of the two review quotes appearing on the poster reads, "The less you know in advance, the better."  I am going to heed that advice by film critic David Bordwell, and therefore it's up to you to check out how the story unfolds.  I highly recommend doing so.

As she was sucking down a delicious Insight Saison de Blanc at Libertine following the movie, Momma Cuan made a valid point which bears repeating.  She opined that when you watch a movie with talented but unfamiliar foreign actors, it is easier to forget that they are, in fact acting.  The only familiarity we have with them is that they are one with their corresponding characters.  As we like to say on ND Nation, "Agreeance."  The acting in About Elly is nothing less than phenomenal. 

Movie Review: "Me And Earl And The Dying Girl"

"Me And Earl And The Dying Girl": B.  I had no intention of seeing Me And Earl And The Dying Girl until I received an e-mail from my pen pal, Colin Covert, praising the film as "a wonderful movie just crammed with talent and creative energy."  Covert is the film critic for the Star Tribune, so yes, I am name-dropping a little bit here.  I refer to him as "my pen pal" because he is one of the few Strib journalists who is kind enough to respond to my e-mails.  In fact, he always responds.  I had written to him asking if he'd seen Testament Of Youth (reviewed here June 30, 2015; B), for which the Strib had used a review by New York Times critic Stephen Holden.  It turns out Covert had not seen that picture, and in closing steered me to Me And Earl.

The story is about three high school friends, Greg (Thomas Mann), Earl (Ronald Cyler II) and Rachel (Olivia Cooke), classmates at a Pittsburgh high school.  The two guys are best buds who share movie-making as a hobby.  The titles of their short, low budget films are take-offs on familiar sayings, slogans and movie titles such as My Dinner With Andre The Giant, Senior Citizen Kane and Anatomy Of A Burger.  Greg and Rachel have known each other since grade school, but have traveled in different circles within their high school as they grew older.  It isn't until Greg's mother (Connie Britton of TV's Friday Night Lights fame) informs him of Rachel's cancer condition that he and Rachel reconnect, albeit mutually reluctantly.  He is brutally honest when, without prompting, he reveals to Rachel that his mother is the one who suggested he pay her a home visit.  Rachel does not take offense, instead appreciating such candor. She is bemused by his simple charm.  More visits ensue.  Many of the movie's scenes occur in her spacious bedroom, where she has a collection of offbeat pillows and, of all things, scissors.

Greg's initial plan for surviving senior year was to be cordial to each of the wide varieties of cliques and other social groups, while simultaneously avoiding membership.  His approach is to be an acquaintance to all but not close friends with any, except for Earl.  But the more he talks with Rachel, the harder it is to stay aloof.  Little by little he puts his friendship with her on higher priority levels, even to the point of starting on a movie project with Earl which is tailor made for Rachel.  Her disease is no longer the impetus for his frequent visits.

Greg was never a stellar student, settling for average grades.  Now that he's a senior his mother insists he's got to get serious about college plans.  She has him carting around an eight hundred page college guide, and even suggests Princeton as a school to which he should apply.  Clearly she is clueless, but at least he has in his life a history teacher, Mr. McCarthy (Jon Bernthal), who can relate to kids and offer sage advice from time to time.  Greg and Earl make themselves at home in McCarthy's office, even when the teacher is elsewhere.  Unfortunately, the more time Greg devotes to Rachel, the less he focuses on his already precarious schoolwork. 

 

Me And Earl, told in a first person narrative from Greg's perspective, is a coming-of-age story.  Even though the time span is a single school year, it reminds me a lot of 2009's 500 Days Of Summer, to which I gave a pre-blog rating of B+ and is likewise told from the male's perspective.  Coincidentally, both movies use the device of compartmentalizing sections of the story with on-screen chapter titles. 

 

Me And Earl is a true-to-life portrayal of what it's like to be a high schooler who is so normal as to be almost hidden in plain sight; not a jock, a climber, a party animal, a scholar, a stoner or a trouble maker.  Just an average joe with a couple of close friends who, despite his plans for an uneventful senior year, instead experiences one which will stay with him a long time.    

Driving Miss Linda

Last Friday the news of Egyptian actor Omar Sharif's death in Cairo saddened movie buffs around the world.  Sharif was an international star whose film career extended almost right up to his passing from a heart attack at age eighty-three.  His most famous role was that of the title character in the 1965 epic of the Russian Revolution, Doctor Zhivago (scanned April 1, 2012; B+), for which he won a Golden Globe Award.  But the movie I personally associate more with Sharif is 1962's Lawrence Of Arabia, for which he also won a Golden Globe and a nomination for an Academy Award.  I remember it well because is was the destination for my first real date.

In the winter of 1962-63 I was a fifteen year old sophomore at Assumption High in Davenport, Iowa.  Although I had been the so-called "boyfriend" of several girls in grade school and the first year and a half at Assumption --  mostly girls I barely knew, artificial connections manufactured by female classmates with too much time on their hands -- I had never really gone on a date.  By "date" I mean picking a girl up, taking her somewhere (not just hanging out), and then bringing her back to her house.  Once I became fifteen, I thought it was about time, maybe even long overdue.  The two biggest obstacles to executing my plan were building the courage to ask someone out, and dealing with the fact that I was under sixteen and therefore without a driver's license.  Since I figured there was a better-than-even chance I might not ever build up the courage to overcome the first obstacle until I was, say, seventeen, I decided not to worry about the car issue.  By the time I'd be seventeen, I'd have my own wheels!

 

Surprisingly, the first hurdle was overcome with relative ease.  As I've written before (in my August 25, 2012 post), Assumption was not co-ed, so the only high school girls I knew very well were my former classmates from Our Lady Of Lourdes Grade School in Bettendorf, Iowa.  I chose Linda Roemer as the "target" because she met my three criteria: pretty (call me "shallow" if you must), talkative (to complement my reticence) and a Lourdes alum.  In a weak moment, she said yes.  It's a good thing she said yes because my universe of potential candidates was countable on one hand, and I may not have ever continued the quest beyond a rejection from Linda.

 

Now it was time for figuring out transportation.  I did not know any Assumption upperclassmen (read: drivers) well enough to propose a double date, so I had to ask the one person I knew would oblige: The Marquis.

 

As I correctly predicted, Pook had way more questions about my upcoming date than did The Marquis.  How do you know Linda?  What is she like?  How did you go about asking her?  Where does she live?  What are you going to do?  Do you know her parents?  Etc.  The Marquis, on the other hand, had only one very practical question.  Do you want to sit in the back seat with Linda, or would you prefer that you both sit in the front with me?  Better to figure this out now instead of experiencing an awkward hesitation later.

 

I only remember my dad owning one kind of car, a station wagon for hauling National cash registers.  Nothing impresses a girl more than pulling up in a big ol' station wagon with a couple of clunky registers in the far back.  In any event, it was my feeling that it would seem more like a date if Linda and I sat in the back (i.e., between the front seat and the registers) than crammed in the front with the old man.

 

Time for an aside:  The Marquis gave me some advice which I deemed to be good and therefore attempted to follow.  He said, if you want to ask a girl out, do so several days, maybe even a week, before the planned outing.  If you wait until the last minute, you give the impression that she was not the first girl you had in mind for that evening, not to mention that the longer you wait the greater the chance that she will have made other plans.  The main downside for me was that, for the entire week leading up to the big Saturday night with Linda, it was hard for me to concentrate on anything else, like classes and studying.  The Nerves Meter was in the red zone throughout.

 

The Roemers lived in Bettendorf, as did my family.  My dad pulled in their driveway, and I went to the door to get Linda and to meet her parents for the first time.  I stepped into the living room and, although both of her folks were friendly, they were sizing me up with a list of questions that would have made Pook's list look like an abridged Readers' Digest version.  (In case you are wondering, no, they did not ask me to present a personal financial statement!)  At some point during the multi-minute inquisition, Linda sneaked out and went to the station wagon.  If you are guessing that she sat in the front seat with The Marquis, you would be correct.  So much for that part of my plans!

 

The seating arrangement actually turned out to be fine because my dad, with his Irish wit, could keep just about any conversation rolling.  We needed it to keep rolling because we were headed for Illinois.  "Why Illinois?" you might ask.  Well because the movie I chose for the date was the one everybody was buzzing about, Lawrence Of Arabia, and the only Quad Cities venue where that film was playing was the Rocket Theater in Rock Island, Illinois.  For those of you who are not Geography Bee participants, the Quad Cities are comprised of Davenport and Bettendorf, separated from Moline, Illinois and Rock Island by the Mississippi River.

 

Most guys, when they are selecting an activity for their first date with a girl, will choose something which will enable them to get to know each other better.  For example, going bowling, to a sporting event or out to dinner would afford opportunities for talking and asking each other questions.  Most would avoid movies altogether, because they obviously do not lend themselves to chit chat.  Not me.  Instead of doing the smart thing, I chose not only to go to a movie, but to go to one with a running time exceeding three and a half hours!  Other than a mumble here and there, Linda and I sat in silence for over three and a half hours (two hundred twenty-seven minutes, to be exact).  Well, at least it lessens the prospects of saying something stupid!

 

When the closing credits were rolling, I asked Linda, "Do you think this is a double feature?"  I had been working on that joke for the past two hundred twenty-seven minutes.

 

I'm not sure if she thought that was funny, because her reply was, "His eyes were so blue!"  She was referring not to Sharif, who had a supporting role, but to lead actor Peter O'Toole, whose eyes were, indeed, a deep, almost mesmerizing blue.

 

We had roughly twenty minutes until The Marquis was scheduled to chauffeur us back home to Iowa, so we ducked into a diner next to the Rocket for ice cream.  This was, after all, the early sixties, and finishing up a date with ice cream, just like you would a meal, was in fashion.  It was the best part of our date, the only time we had to talk alone.  Throughout the brief treat, Linda must have commented on O'Toole's blue eyes three or four more times.  She was in love, but not with me.  When The Marquis showed up he asked us, "How did you two like the movie?"

 

I preempted Linda by immediately replying, "It was a little too long, but you wouldn't believe Peter O'Toole's blue eyes!"

Quarterly Cinema Scan - Volume XX

Reasonable minds can disagree as to which Alfred Hitchcock movie was his best.  Rear Window from 1954 is always in the conversation.  How many directors besides Hitch could keep us interested in a main character who is confined to a wheelchair and spends most of the time gazing out his apartment window?  The beautiful Grace Kelly gracing the screen no doubt helps keep the interest level high.  If building atmospheric scenes is your cup of tea, you might vote for Vertigo (1958).  I remember after first seeing that movie I had a dream about the haunting Kim Novak, and not in a good way.  There was a time in my life when I thought The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956) was the most entertaining movie by any director that I'd ever seen.  The climax in London's Albert Hall -- yep, the same Albert Hall mentioned in the Beatles' A Day In The Life -- is spine tingling.  By the way, the three aforementioned movies all starred Jimmy Stewart.  Psycho (scanned January 7, 2015; A-) was groundbreaking and controversial, a horror story of sorts without ghosts, zombies or digitized monsters.  And in my pre-blog days I bestowed an A on Dial M For Murder, thus anointing it one of the top forty films I've ever had the pleasure of viewing.

 

If you selected as your top choice one of those five Hitchcock dramas -- or even a different one such as The 39 Steps (1935) or Rebecca (1940) -- I would not dump your seven dollar bucket of buttered popcorn over your head, although all bets are off if you prefer 1963's The Birds (scanned January 7, 2015; C).  But the one Hitchcock film I put on the throne is North By Northwest from 1959.  I have watched Cary Grant, James Mason and Eva Marie Saint in that intriguing cold war thriller more than a half dozen times.

 

Grant plays Roger Thornhill, a smooth, suave Manhattan advertising executive who is usually seen in a Brooks Brothers suit, regardless of the occasion.  Mason is Phillip Vandamm, equally smooth and suave, who is covertly under surveillance by the US Intelligence Agency, a government agency similar to the FBI.  The agency is headed by The Professor (Leo G. Carroll).  Vandamm is suspected of carrying on some dastardly deeds, like spying, smuggling or drug running.  The government isn't sure exactly what, and therefore waiting for just the right moment to pounce.

 

Vandamm and his henchmen kidnap Thornhill, mistakenly believing he is a rival named George Kaplan, notwithstanding protestations by Thornhill.  The ad man is able to escape from the bad guys' clutches, but not without running afoul of the law.  Even his own mother, Clara (the feisty and funny Jessie Royce Landis), doesn't believe his incredible version of what transpired.  Thus, the nattily attired Thornhill has both the cops and Vandamm's men after him.  Along the way he encounters Eve Kendall (Saint), who is….; well, I'll leave it to you to figure out that character.  The scenes shift from Manhattan to the New York Central Railroad to Chicago, then Indiana and back to Chicago, and finally South Dakota.

 

What sets North By Northwest apart from those other Hitchcock classics?  I am going to list two important attributes plus the unique icing on the cake.  But before I do so, I must concede that the plot has at least one gaping flaw of the type which usually turns me off to a story as a whole.  Thornhill, while on the run from both the cops and Vandamm, must get from New York to Chicago discretely yet quickly in order to confront the mysterious Mr. Kaplan.  The ticketless Thornhill opts for the train, but until he makes a mad dash past the entry gate conductor in Grand Central Station, there is a strong likelihood he will not get on board.  Wouldn't you know it?  Vandamm and the boys are on the same train!  How did they know Thornhill was going to be on that train when, moments before the train pulls out of the station, Thornhill himself didn't even know?

 

Now for those favorable attributes.

 

The Male Leads:  In 1959 both Grant and Mason were established film stars with impressive resumes.  Both hailed from England and possessed that certain je ne sais quoi enabling them to convert rather mundane lines into quotable colloquy.  Supplement that talent with their handsomeness, fine tailored suits, smooth buttery British accents and a natural flair, and you have the makings of a combination for the ages.  The scenes in which these two superbly skilled actors are paired is cinema at its best.

 

The Humor:  Secondly we have the humor, with kudos and a standing O for script writer Ernest Lehman.  We like Thornhill immediately when, in the movie's opening scene, he cracks a couple of good one-liners to his secretary, Maggie (Doreen Lang), in a taxi.  "In the world of advertising there's no such thing as a lie -- only expedient exaggeration."  A few minutes later, after instructing Maggie to call his mother with dinner plans when Maggie gets back to the office: "Tell her I'm having two drinks at the Oak Room, so she doesn't need to smell my breath."

 

More humor from Grant's character:

 

To Eve Kendall on the train: "Tell me, what do you do besides lure men to their doom on the 20th Century Limited?"

 

To Eve, kissing her in the Pullman car: "[I have good] taste in women; I like your flavor."

 

To Eve in a hotel room: "How does a girl like you get to be a girl like you?"

 

To The Professor on an airport tarmac: "Now wait a minute, you listen to me.  I'm an advertising man, not a red herring.  I've got a job, a secretary, a mother, two ex-wives and several bartenders dependent on me, and I don't intend to disappoint them all by getting myself slightly killed."

 

The Unforgettable Scenes:  Finally, as promised, the icing on the cake, a theory of mine after pondering the issue over a few adult beverages, not including a Gibson (Thornhill's favorite cocktail).

 

Most films do not have any individual scene that has lasted in the public's collective memory over a multi-year span.  But think about some famous movies which do contain an iconic scene:  The car chase in Bullitt (1968); the Normandy Beach landing in Saving Private Ryan (1998); farting around the camp fire in Blazing Saddles (1974); the ear carving in Reservoir Dogs (1992); the shower scene in Hitch's Psycho.  All of these scenes have two things in common.  First, when you see or hear one of those movie titles, your thoughts immediately go to that famous scene.  The word associations are practically instinctive.  Second, each is by far the most memorable scene in its respective film.  In some cases, it's hard to come up with any other scene.

 

North By Northwest does not fit that description.  Why?  Because it is one of only a handful of films -- and arguably the only Hitchcock film -- which contains two epic scenes which have been inextricably linked to the movie.  Those two scenes are the Indiana crop dusting scene and the Mount Rushmore finale.  Each of those two scenes lasts only about five minutes, yet they are historic.  It is impossible to think of North By Northwest without recalling, and marveling at, those sequences.

 

Here are the movies I've watched in the comfort of The Quentin Estates during the second quarter of 2015.

 

1.  Colorado Territory (1949 western; Joel McCrea busts out of jail and hooks up with fellow bad guys to pull off one last heist, not at all planning to be distracted by earthy Texan Virginia Mayo or genteel Georgian Dorothy Malone.) A

 

2. A Country Wedding (2015 romance; Jesse Metcalfe is a superstar country singer who, on the eve of his wedding to Hollywood starlet Laura Mennell, reconnects with florist Autumn Reeser, who owns the ranch next door.) B+

3. How To Marry A Millionaire (1953 comedy; Lauren Bacall, Marilyn Monroe and Betty Grable are three poor models who rent a luxury Manhattan apartment as part of a scheme to find and marry rich men.) C

4. LA Confidential  (1997 drama; in a corrupt LA police department, Guy Pearce is the baby-faced politician who aspires to climb the ladder, Kevin Spacey is a narcotics detective with connections to a Dragnet-type of television show and a tabloid magazine, and Russell Crowe is a tough guy who doesn't mind bending the rules to put a suspect behind bars.) A

 

5. Last Days In Viet Nam (2014 documentary; the US Army and American embassy staff leave Saigon as the North Viet Nam enemy is on the march, and in the process of evacuation many South Vietnamese who had helped the US are deceitfully left behind.)  A

 

6. Mean Streets (1973 drama; Harvey Keitel is a small time hood in NYC, under the thumb of his mafia uncle who warns him to distance himself from his deadbeat friend Robert De Niro.) C

 

7. North By Northwest (1959 drama; see the above mini-review.) A

8. A Place In The Sun (1951  drama; Montgomery Clift wants to ditch plain and pregnant Shelly Winters so he can take up with socialite glamour girl Elizabeth Taylor.) B-

9. The Sundowners (1960 Australian western; Robert Mitchum enjoys the nomadic life of an itinerant sheep drover, but wife Deborah Kerr is ready to settle down on a ranch.) B+