Comedy-drama. Starring Ellen Barkin, Debra Monk and Jennifer Jason Leigh.
Directed by Todd Solondz. (Not rated. 100 minutes. At Bay Area theaters.).
“Palindromes” is the product of an ugly vision of life and of people. This
vision is hardly sophisticated, in the sense of depth or intricacy, but it’s
compelling in its relentlessness and purity. Writer-director Todd Solondz,
though capable of sympathy and of rendering moments of heartfelt delicacy,
seems, like a cinematic Diane Arbus, incapable of presenting people without
judgment. He can’t not see what he sees, and he can’t not present what he sees
in the way that he sees it.
The consciousness at work here, grounded on a set of essentially self-
protective philosophical misconceptions, seems ultimately too narrow, closed-
off and turned in on itself to produce great art. Thus, to the extent that
“Palindromes” aspires to be a statement about life, it fails. Yet in another
way, the movie succeeds resoundingly, in that through it Solondz expresses and,
in a sense, preserves what we might reasonably infer to be his inner life.
Moreover, he does so with guts. There’s no concession, no compromise, no
penlight in the endless night, no joy and no hope in “Palindromes.” Despite
its subdued tone, its pessimism is something brutal.
It’s about a 13-year-old girl who wants nothing but to become pregnant
and have a child. The girl, Aviva — the name is a palindrome, spelled the
same backward and forward — is shy and seemingly love-starved, despite an
attentive mother (Ellen Barkin).
The girl’s story is told over a series of episodes, and in each episode,
the actress playing her changes. In one long section, Aviva is black. In
another, she’s still 13 but looks about 40, as played by Jennifer Jason Leigh.
The parade of actresses is more or less a gimmick, but it serves a couple
of functions. Using different actresses allows Solondz to emphasize particular
emotions and qualities in several scenes, to good effect. Changing Avivas also
creates a double sense, both of the common nature of Aviva’s experience and of
her specific unimportance. It distances us, causing us to look at Aviva, not
as a standard protagonist, but coldly, as a specimen of anonymous human misery.
“Palindromes” is torturously slow at times, but it’s often fascinating.
To function in the world, according to Solondz, one inevitably enters into a
lie. To do anything but remain in a state of emotional paralysis, one must
construct a false personality that eventually prevents one from ever again
locating even the most basic truth.
For example, Barkin plays a mom who genuinely tries to help her pregnant
daughter, but her every move is based on a monstrous selfishness and
narcissism. What’s interesting is that she seems to know it and to be trying
to work against it, but she can’t locate any truth inside herself. There’s
nothing real anymore. The place of purity is lost.
Given Solondz’s worldview, it’s no surprise that he would connect
metaphorically with the issue of abortion, which gives impetus to the main
plot line. His treatment of the issue is unflinching and will upset people on
both sides.
“Palindromes” isn’t a wise movie, or a particularly true movie, but it’s
an honest one and a singular experience.
– Advisory: This film contains violence and simulated sex.
– Mick LaSalle
Daybreak
Drama Starring Jakob Eklund, Ann Petrén and Magnus Krepper. Written and
directed by Björn Runge. (In Swedish with English subtitles. R. 108 minutes.
At Bay Area theaters.).
It’s hard to see close-ups of couples bickering in Swedish and not think
of Ingmar Bergman. Although the master had nothing to do with “Daybreak,” his
influence is felt in this brooding saga of angst in a cold climate. You can
practically feel the chill coming in from the North Sea.
In the very first image, a surgeon operates on a damaged heart, an
appropriate prelude to a film in which the lives of numerous unhappy people
are laid out. They run the economic gamut from the doctor, Rickard (Jakob
Eklund), who is cheating on his wife, to a bricklayer, Anders (Magnus Krepper),
who rarely sees his family in his continual struggle to support them. Rich
and poor alike, they’re all looking for an escape hatch. To the extent that
this difficult but ultimately rewarding film has a message, it’s that you
can’t run away from who you are.
Director Björn Runge deserves credit just for keeping the multiple
stories straight. He jumps around from one household furnished in Scandinavian
modern to the next almost identical one. But his segues are seamless, and
there’s never any confusion about where you are.
Occasionally the characters’ lives intersect, once literally at an
intersection where one of them is almost mowed down by vehicles driven by two
others. Rickard carries on a passionate affair with the wife of a doctor at
the same hospital. His colleague discovers it and exacts an elaborately cruel
punishment. An aging couple hires Anders to brick up all their windows and
door, a bizarre request resulting from their estrangement from their only
child.
Eklund and Krepper bring an appropriate somberness to these men leading
lives of quiet desperation. The film gets a jolt from Ann Petrén’s raucous
performance as Anita, who can’t forgive her husband for leaving her for a much
younger woman. Seeking revenge, Anita lets herself into the couple’s home,
which used to be hers, and, like a deranged Martha Stewart, criticizes the new
wife’s housekeeping practices. “You still have the summer curtains up, and
it’s almost winter,” she screeches.
The quiet Swedish suburb where “Daybreak” is set is a regular Peyton
Place with all the wife swapping that goes on. Guess people have to do
something to stay warm.
– Advisory: This film contains sexual content.
– Ruthe Stein
Fighting Tommy Riley
Drama. Starring J.P. Davis. Directed by Eddie O’Flaherty. (Rated R. 109
minutes. At the AMC 1000 Van Ness, and Presidio Theatre.).
The sweet science seems to be one of pop culture’s favorite metaphors
lately: Clint’s “Million Dollar Baby” cleaned up at the Oscars, Sly Stallone’s
reality TV show “The Contender” won out against “The Next Great Champ,” and
singer-songwriter Aimee Mann climbed into the ring this week with her boxing-
themed concept album, “The Forgotten Arm.” Now, in this corner, the indie
upstart, “Fighting Tommy Riley,” and if it fails to land its big final punch,
it’s still a contender.
In an aptly “Rocky”-esque twist, the movie was written by unknown actor J.
P. Davis, who refused to sell his script unless he could play the title role.
Davis — imagine a Van Damme who can act, a gloweringly charismatic
Abercrombie with total K.O. cheekbones — plays Tommy, a short-fused, self-
destructive young boxer who has all but abandoned his dream of going for the
big time (he blew it at the 1999 Olympic trials).
Tommy’s raw talent is recognized and set free by a Melville-quoting, gone-
to-seed trainer, Marty Goldberg (veteran actor Eddie Jones, never less than
convincing in a lived-in part that’s packed with pathos), an old-school ex-
boxer who grabs this last chance and returns to life with Tommy’s gradual
success and friendship.
But Marty’s got his own (not-so-shocking) Secret, and where most boxing
movies pay off with the stock scene of the underdog’s climactic bout, the big
round in “Tommy Riley” is a queasily confused emotional standoff between
mentor and fighter.
Working on a microbudget, director Eddie O’Flaherty coaches solid
performances from his small cast and makes the most of the handful of up-close,
well-choreographed fight montages. Working with digital video,
cinematographer Michael Fimognari paints the gritty gyms and dingy apartments
in moody blues and somber ochres.
– Advisory: This movie contains violence, rough language and sexual
content.
– Joe Brown
Drive
Action comedy. Written and directed by Sabu. In Japanese with English
subtitles. (Not rated. 100 minutes. At the 4-Star.).
If you haven’t entered the eccentric comic world of the filmmaker known
as Sabu (nee Hiroyuki Tanaka), “Drive” is an excellent starting point, even if
it seems it could have been a little stronger.
A former actor and singer, Sabu’s films inevitably involve an innocent
everyman (usually, as here, played with an expression of perpetual shock by
Shinichi Tsutsumi) who by pure chance falls into a plot of elaborate mayhem.
This time, Tsutsumi is a salaryman, Asakura, who is carjacked and kidnapped by
three bank robbers and ordered to pursue a fourth man, who has escaped with
the loot and the getaway car.
Trouble is, Asakura has spent his whole life playing by the rules, and
that includes following the speed limit and all traffic signs, and even
mastering that increasingly lost art that the old-timers once called a turn
signal. So the man with the money gets away, but becomes trapped by literally
a hole in the ground. The other three criminals are at first angered at
Asakura, but later come to like him.
As they drive through Tokyo, experiencing the spectrum of Japanese social
life, they become less and less interested in the missing money and more about
how they can fulfill their happiness without it. One, played by dependable
character actor Ren Osugi, is an anti-drug crusader who joins a punk rock band
to get his message across.
There are also the ghosts of samurai and several uses of a baseball bat,
but that would be too much to explain. It eventually does make sense in Sabu’s
quirky world.
– Advisory: This film contains scenes of comic violence and language.
– G. Allen Johnson