Secret Agent Gal Movie Reviews

Waste Land ****

 

Dirt, diamonds, sugar, string, wire and chocolate syrup comprise the images of photographer Vik Muniz. Bringing garbage to life throughout the world, his work has been called witty and bold. When Muniz travels from his Brooklyn studio to his native Brazil to visit the landfill Jardim Gramacho, a deeper human transformation begins.

Arriving at “the city of garbage,” Muniz meets the catadores, pickers of recyclable materials. Jardim Gramacho was then known as the world’s largest landfill, taking in 70% of Rio de Janeiro’s trash. Some 3,000 pickers retrieved 200 tons of recyclable materials there each day. “It’s funny how you get used to the smell,” someone remarks.

With genuine excitement, Muniz collaborates with his subjects. He photographs them, sometimes in poses that suggest artistic masterworks. The pickers then arrange PVC and bottle caps to create huge floor collages. Muniz photographs them from high above. He loves to play with perspective. Images emerge at a distance from seemingly random, scattered objects.

Waste Land is more than another art documentary. Director Lucy Walker makes the pickers’ perspective central, adding much heart with their stories against the backdrop of society’s waste.

Zumbi specializes in paper recycling. Rescuing discarded books from the landfill, he’s read The Da Vinci Code and The Art of War. “I don’t want my son to be a picker,” he says. He dreams of establishing a community library.

Tiao, the president of the pickers’ association (ACAMJG), is held up one day. The groups’ wages for an entire week – $6,000 – is gone. The landfill is surrounded by favelas, communities where the drug trade thrives. When drug dealers go to war, bodies are sure to be dumped amidst the trash mountains.

 

Magna arrived at the fields a year ago when her husband lost his job. She calls her work interesting and dignified. “It’s better than turning tricks in Copacabana,” she says. Auntie Irma has worked at the landfill for 30 years. She serves beef stew, juice and coffee to the pickers, rain or shine.

A native of Sao Paulo, Muniz sees beauty in the lower middle class. Unfortunate circumstances could send anyone to the garbage fields, he realizes. “It could be me.” Muniz interviews his father Vicente, who built his family’s home at a time when the area had no running water or sewage system.

Tiao travels to London with Muniz and his team to attend the show. He knows he will return to the landfill. Meanwhile he gazes at the sights and learns about art. He becomes a fan of Jean-Michel Basquiat who was once homeless. Tiao begins to imagine a better future.

Muniz shares a quarter of a million in profits with the association. As the landfill is scheduled to close in 2012, the pickers study in retraining programs.

Dreams are realized. Zumbi’s library has opened, equipped with 15 computers. Irma runs her own cooking business.  Magna is now a single mom who works in a drug store. Suelem, who posed Madonna-like with her two children, has remarried and feels fortunate to be a stay-at-home mom.

The photographer distributes a framed portrait to each subject. The art becomes a focal point in each shanty, evoking admiration and spirited conversation. “Sometimes we see ourselves as so small,” Irma says. 

Walker was assisted by co-directors João Jardim and Karen Harley. Cinematographer Dudu Miranda shows Jardim Gramacho from many perspectives, including aerial views that evoke an eerie peace. 

Muniz wanted to change people’s lives with his art. Now he asks, “Who am I to help anybody? I feel like I’m being helped more than they are.” His Pictures of Garbage show attracts over a million viewers in Brazil.

If you like Waste Land, you might enjoy: Cave of Forgotten Dreams; Man Push Cart; I Am.

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Waste Land    2010  /  NR  /  1 hour, 38 min

Cast Overview:  Vik Muniz, Fabio Ghivelder, Tiao, Zumbi, Irma, Suelem, Magna

Director:  Lucy Walker

Genre:  Documentary, Art

 

The Art of Getting By ***

 

In The Art of Getting By, Teflon slacker George (Freddie Highmore) is paralyzed by dread. Loneliness and death haunt him. Worse still, everyone insists he must get a job someday. George’s philosophy consists of three words: What’s the point?

A modern day Peter Pan with less charm, George never wants to grow up.  He carries The Stranger by Albert Camus everywhere. He refuses to do his homework. (The original title of the film was Homework.)  Principal Martinson (Blair Underwood) gives George an ultimatum: complete all his homework or no diploma.

Highmore (Toast; August Rush) seems hemmed in by the film’s sometimes stilted dialogue and story. "I'm obnoxious. I'm deeply disrespectful," George says.

Emma Roberts – niece of Julia Roberts – creates real nuance and a screen presence worth checking out. Still, we never understand what Sally sees in the misanthrope. “You have issues,” she says. The two start hanging out after George takes the rap for smoking on the school roof, allowing Sally to escape undetected.

Sally is embarrassed by her boozing mom (Elizabeth Reaser) who is searching for a new boyfriend. The two friends assume the role of grown-ups when Mrs. Howe flirts with George.

 

George's mother (Rita Wilson) and stepfather (Sam Robards) are distracted and stressed out with money problems and each other. When his mother learns that George hasn’t been doing his homework for months, she is genuinely stunned.

This freshman outing by writer-director Gavin Wiesen is an interesting but bumpy training run needing better dialogue and deeper character development. The Art of Getting By will attract audiences of slackers, as well as teachers who struggle to understand them.

The film has a flat quality as it insists on meaninglessness. There is not one, single spiritual moment.  George and Sally’s foundering parents seem more clueless than their kids. Everyone trudges along, convinced that grades, jobs and money are all-important.  No wonder the next generation is so disillusioned.

The highest aspiration George can manage is turning his frenzied sketches into art. Unfortunately, he freezes when asked for his point of view. Too terrified to do his art homework, he can’t imagine taking his friendship with Sally to the next level. It takes an overly-convenient emergency at home to wake George up.

Wiesen beautifully observes a few emotionally complex scenes. George and Sally pass each other like strangers on a New York street. Cinematographer Ben Kutchins zooms in on their faces at a Valentine’s Day dinner.

Some of George’s teachers believe in him, especially a pissed off art instructor Harris McElroy (memorably played by Jarlath Conroy). One instructor speaks plainly at a disciplinary meeting: “You don’t respect us, so why should we respect you?” Alicia Silverstone plays a concerned English teacher.

George begins to hang out with Sally’s friends. Sasha Spielberg and Marcus Carl Franklin play rich adolescents who have mastered the art of underage drinking and clubbing.

The Art of Getting By could serve as a how-to for young artists.  Here’s what George learns about unlocking his inner Basquiat:

“Figure out what you want to say and say it,” Harris tells him.  “Look in the mirror and listen to your gut.” George’s final class project must be honest and fearless.

“Be resourceful,” George’s stepfather tells him. This advice rings hollow as the adult inhabits his own world of secrets and lies.

Knowing what to paint “is the hardest part,” says Dustin (Michael Angarano of Snow Angels), George’s self-involved mentor. Examining the slacker’s original doodles, he insists: “This is what you should be painting.” Producer Andrew Levitas provides the film’s excellent artwork and plays student Javier.

The Art of Getting By has a tedious, depressed feeling that is buoyed somewhat by its closing act.

Interviewed by MovieLine, Roberts said, “There are so many high school romance films that have all this teenaged, heightened emotion. That’s not how it happens.”  For her, the film’s coming-of-age theme means “you need to figure out who you are for yourself, not for your friends or your family or your teachers. You kind of need to figure that out for you.”

If you like The Art of Getting By, you might enjoy: Hesher; Everything Must Go; Win Win.

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The Art of Getting By     2011  /  PG-13  /  1 hour, 24 min

Cast Overview:  Freddie Highmore, Emma Roberts, Michael Angarano, Elizabeth Reaser, Sam Robards, Jarlath Conroy, Ann Dowd, Marcus Carl Franklin, Sasha Spielberg, Rita Wilson, Blair Underwood

Director:  Gavin Wiesen

Genre:  Drama, Dramedy

 

The Tree of Life *****

 

A family drama interpreted spiritually and artistically, The Tree of Life is a sweeping tale from the beginning to the end of time. Terrence Malick’s epic masterpiece won the Palme d’Or, top prize at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival.

“It is only with the heart that one can see rightly,” wrote Antoine de Saint-Exupery. To fully appreciate Malick’s fifth feature, we must experience it with the heart.

A mother asks why her son is dead, who God is, and why we are here at all. Set in 1950's Texas, the film is all yearning, exploring, imploring. It’s a stark contrast to the loud, violent fare filling modern multiplexes.

After Mrs. O’Brien (Jessica Chastain) receives news of her 19-year-old son’s death, Malick returns us to our cosmic origins. Galaxies form. Earth develops. A couple meets. A child is born. Hundreds of beautifully composed images shape a quiet, elegant whole. Upheavals, universal and personal, take on a stately grace. The soundscape is lyrical. Even protozoa and dinosaurs demonstrate gentle intelligence.

Malick's sparse dialogue and interior monologues accompany these scenes like poetry. Lush cinematography by Emmanuel Lubezki and the orchestral score by Alexandre Desplat are a revelation.

 

Mrs. O’Brien teaches her sons two ways through life. The way of grace accepts being slighted, forgotten, disliked, insulted or injured. The way of nature (i.e., the way of the ego) dominates others, pleases itself and dwells in unhappiness. “Love is smiling through all things,” she says.

The Tree of Life shows the relationship of young Jack (Hunter McCracken in a stirring debut) and his strict, sometimes unhinged father (Brad Pitt in an Oscar-worthy dramatic performance). 

Pitt reveals a complex go-getter in the aerospace industry, a stern father who is an avid fan of Brahms. Yet O’Brien can’t reconcile the strains of a concerto with his family assembled around the dinner table. His sons never show him enough respect or measure up to his machismo.

Young Jack has begun breaking windows, stealing and tormenting small animals. “I’m as bad as you are,” Jack tells his father. Grace touches him one day and he experiences a change of heart. Jack apologizes to the brother (Laramie Eppler) he has hurt. He is kind to a neighborhood boy scarred in a house fire.

“The only way to be happy is to love. Unless you love, your life will flash by.” As Jack’s mother, Chastain is grace personified. She evokes a woman so gentle that a butterfly lands on her outstretched hand. When she disinfects a child’s cut and blows on it, we can feel her cool breath.  

 

Childhood innocence is gradually worn by the rules of society. “It takes fierce will to get ahead in this world,” Jack’s father tells him. The boy is forbidden to cross the invisible property line of a neighbor’s yard.

Sean Penn plays Jack as an angry, disillusioned man still grappling with his difficult father. Every year he lights a candle to commemorate his “true, kind” brother. Best Actor Penn delivers strong supporting work as he looks to the celestial skyscrapers of Houston for solace. They are a kind of postmodern church for Jack.

An asteroid strikes, causing massive tsunamis. Jack wanders a beach afterwards, filled with awe and wonder. It is a new beginning.

If we are open to it, The Tree of Life imparts a direct, mystical encounter between God and humans. Malick uses Christian references as the family attends church in Waco, Texas. The tree of life is an ancient symbol of heaven and earth in many religions.

The director continues his fascination with nature and the manmade world. The fields and forests of Jack’s childhood are a respite from searing inner conflicts. A universal perspective helps Jack heal years later. 

Douglas Trumbull’s special effects are natural and imaginative, resonant with the film’s ordered harmony. Superb editing is accomplished by Hank Corwin, Jay Rabinowitz, Daniel Rezende, Billy Weber and Mark Yoshikawa. 

Malick makes films with great care and thought. After studying philosophy at Harvard, he directed four films over four decades, The New World, The Thin Red Line, Days of Heaven and Badlands.

"He is working within a Hollywood system, but in a unique and personal way, much the same as Kubrick did," according to Hannah Patterson, author of The Cinema of Terrence Malick: Poetic Visions of America. "There is that level of mystery that comes from not doing interviews and not being in the public eye,” she said. Malick allows his films to speak for themselves.

Three years in the making, The Tree of Life is the director’s most epic and spiritual film to date. It reveals civilization as an experiment, a tiny shard of all that is.

Malick’s newest project stars Ben Affleck, Rachel McAdams, Javier Bardem and Rachel Weisz. It is scheduled for release in 2012.

 If you like The Tree of Life, you might enjoy: Of Gods and Men; I Am; 127 Hours.

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The Tree of Life     2011  /  PG-13  /  2 hours, 18 min

Cast Overview:  Brad Pitt, Sean Penn, Jessica Chastain, Fiona Shaw, Irene Bedard, Jessica Fuselier, Hunter McCracken, Laramie Eppler, Tye Sheridan 

Director:  Terrence Malick

Genre:  Drama, Indie, Period Piece

 
 

Cave of Forgotten Dreams ****

 

New wave German filmmaker Werner Herzog reveals a protocinema of Paleolithic drawings in the documentary Cave of Forgotten Dreams. Herzog’s enthusiasm is contagious in this unprecedented filming of Chauvet Cave in southern France. Here Earth’s earliest known drawings, about 32,000 years old, were discovered in 1994.

Cinematographer Peter Zeitlinger’s exquisite 3-D images show horses gallop, and now-extinct cave bears and cave lions stalk the undulating walls glittering with calcite. Woolly mammoths peer back at us. Spotted panthers prowl.

The 3-D camerawork brings viewers more deeply into the cave. Herzog’s offbeat narration and signature metaphysical musings keep the film lively. A sacred feeling is evoked in kinship with the ancients.

Cave bears clawed these walls. Leaving their mark on the drawings, they seem like collaborators. Only a small camera and four small, portable panel lights were allowed. Filmed under strict limitations to protect the delicate ecology, the scenes inspire awe.

Since ancient artists carried torches to provide light, Herzog theorizes that they held these aloft and danced, their shadows moving with the animals in an ancient cinema. Impishly, he shows us a clip of Fred Astaire dancing with his own shadow in Swing Time.             

 

In a striking marriage of science and art, a laser spectroscopy image is shown. Hundreds of thousands of points of light reveal every detail and contour of Chauvet Cave's 1300 feet. Jean Clottes, head of the scientific team studying the cave and its art, shares his excitement and theories.

Europe was a dry, cold glacial land back then. One could journey on foot from England to France and Germany. Dominique Baffier, archaeologist and curator of Chauvet Cave, tours the drawings. Each one tells a story, she believes. Rhinoceros lock horns. Bison run, their multiple legs meant to show movement.

Archaeology Magazine reports that the Chauvet artwork was created 35,000 years ago, and again 5,000 years later. Looking fresh and new, the images have been carbon dated.

Fantastic beauty fills the cave. Stalactites and stalagmites glow. Some formations unfurl like candy ribbon. Others evoke thin, frozen needles of rain.  

In another mystery, only one human form was drawn. On a rock pendant, the bottom half of a woman with Venus of Willendorf proportions appears. The team mounts its camera on a stick to reveal the upper half of the image for the first time. It is a bison head.

Animals and humans shared a common, dreamtime existence then. Trees spoke. Have we forgotten how to listen? The footprint of an eight-year-old is found next to a wolf paw print. Herzog wonders whether they walked side by side.

The cave was used for drawing and ceremony, experts believe. There are no human remains. Animal bones, including cave bear skulls and even a golden eagle skeleton, carpet the floor. A Bear Skull Altar faces the cave’s entrance. Bits of charcoal are strewn about like remnants of incense.

Herzog interviews several odd, passionate spiritual seekers. Reindeer-skin clad Wulf Hein plays The Star-Spangled Banner on an ancient flute made from a vulture’s ulna. Archaeologist Julien Monmey shares a story about an Australian aborigine. When asked why he was painting on rock, the aborigine replied, “I am not painting. The hand of the spirit is painting.”

Marring this beautiful documentary is its obtrusive soundtrack, ill-suited to quiet reverence. When Herzog asks his team to observe silence and listen to the cave, moviegoers listen with them for only a few seconds before the heavy-handed score intrudes. Herzog also invites a master perfumer along, but he is unable to detect much aroma.

Risking his life to uncover mystery and truth in his work, 68-year-old Herzog explored some of the most remote areas of the South Pole in Encounters at the End of the World. In Fitzcarraldo and Grizzly Man, he delved into man’s improbable visions and showed the price for realizing those dreams.

In a surreal coda, we see a nuclear power plant some 20 miles away from Chauvet Cave. Its super-heated water prompted officials to build a tropical biosphere dome there. Alligators were introduced. They thrive, some mutating into a ghoulish white.

Might the reptiles escape one day and invade the Chauvet area, once covered by thousands of feet of ice? Two albino alligators face each other in the waters, teeth bared. Herzog asks whether we are doppelgangers, ghostly doubles of the ancients.

If you like Cave of Forgotten Dreams, you might enjoy: The Wind Journeys; Sanctum.

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Cave of Forgotten Dreams     2010  /  G  /    1 hour, 30 min

Cast Overview:  Werner Herzog, Dominique Baffier, Jean Clottes, Jean-Michel Geneste, Carole Fritz, Gilles Tosello, Michel Philippe, Julien Monney, Charles Fathy 

Director:  Werner Herzog

Genre:  Documentary, Nature, Science, Spirituality