The Band's Visit

The Band's Visit begins with intertitles that say: "An Egyptian Police Band got lost in Israel overnight. . . . It was not very important." I'm not sure if this was an attempt to lower expectations, but it certainly did explain what this movie is about. It's a small movie. A microcosm that doesn't concern itself with the outside world. It's not about international politics, even though it could be given the mixture of Arabic and Hebrew and English that the movie contends with. It's not a grand love story or an action-packed spy story. And therein lies its beauty -- by not trying to do too much, the movie excels in what it does do.

There's not much more to the plot than that first sentence. It's about a group of Eygyptian policemen who end up in the middle of nowhere in Israel and have to spend the night because they can't get the next train until the morning. And there are no hotels, so they spend the night with a restaurant owner and her friends. Their lives change because of the night, but not too much, and they affect the lives of the Israeli townspeople they meet, but not too much.

This setup allows for some lovely character exploration, and the actors here are quite frankly amazing: normal, nuanced, full of pathos but not pathetic, and funny. In other words, they'd never make it in Hollywood (also, they're just not good looking enough). Basically all I want to do in this review is related different scenes -- how the very conservative, reserved leader of the police band spends the evening "out on the town" with a free-spirited and direct Israeli woman. Neither of them changes, and they don't become friends, but by the end of the movie he poignantly sees the other person as an opportunity missed -- someone who might have changed his life if only he had been a different person. Then there's the group of men who spend the night at the house of a young married man, and the men end up singing American jazz songs together. The youngest band member decides to hang out with a young Israeli man and helps him pick up a girl in what is my new favorite scene in any movie ever. It's just so funny without using any words. Trust me, it's worth seeing the whole movie just for that moment.

I'm at a loss to sum up the movie. I feel I can't really do it justice by describing it, so I will end with a paraphrase of a bit of dialogue that I think the writers meant to sum up the movie for themselves. One of the band members plays the clarinet, and starting composing a concerto but only has a few melancholic bars written. He plays them several times in the movie, but he says he never finished it because he didn't know how it ended and he got sidetracked by life. In this scene, he is sitting next to the crib of his host's baby. The band member sings the melody to the baby, and the host says, "Maybe this is how you concerto ends. Not with a symphonic crash and triumphant finish, but with with a baby in a crib in a simple room with no decorations on the walls." Sometimes the small bare film is more beautiful than the most ornate and complex movie one could come up with.

3.5 stars

Pushing Daisies (as promised)

OK, I promised an explanation of why I love Pushing Daisies. Now that the series is cancelled (only three more episodes to go!), it seems sad to write about it, but since I've been spending the last few days trying to convince my sister how amazing the show is, here I go:

The main premise of Pushing Daisies is a bit confusing, and I'm sure it was its demise. Ned is a pie maker who can raise the dead with his touch -- this includes people, animals, and plants. If he touches it again, though, it dies. Plus, if he raises something from the dead for more than one minute, something else of equal "value" dies (e.g., a person for a person, or a plant for a plant). The words make it sound hokey and stupid, but the result is much more magical.

The first magical thing is that Ned's girlfriend is someone he raised from the dead. This means he can never touch her. My sister hates this, but I think it's amazing. First of all, it's very old fashioned. I'm reminded of the censorship days of movies and television, when love stories had to be chaste even if sexually charged -- Ned and Charlotte (aka Chuck) even sleep in separate twin beds with a nightstand in between like all the sitcom couples of old.

Also, I'm pretty sure all romance is about not getting what you want. If you never get it, it's a tragedy. If you get delayed gratification, it's a comedy. Pushing Daisies pushes this definition and creates a tragicomedic relationship. Boy gets girl in once sense, but in another he doesn't (and never will).

The second magical thing is that death becomes malleable. One of my main gripes with modernity is we care so much about death -- we're so afraid of it. Maybe this is just my youth talking, but I'm not sure why we are so scared. Shows with death tend to try to drive this home, making death as sad and overwhelming and ugly as our society perceives it to be (see, e.g., House, every cop show ever, every mob show, even Six Feet Under). Pushing Daisies doesn't make light of death, but it isn't afraid of it, either. People die horrible deaths, but it's never gruesome. And since people can come back to life, but the story doesn't have time for them to go into shock or horror about being dead, it's nice to see characters who don't have a problem with being dead, either. (This reminds me of other Bryan Fuller shows, such as Dead Like Me, which was also brilliant).

The third magical thing is Kristin Chenoweth. She's just amazing -- a funny little spitfire who would be the grounding normal character of the series, if she weren't so quirky herself. In fact, all of the characters are quirky. It's a bit forced at times, but it's nice to know that people don't fit into neat categories -- the hardboiled detective also knits and makes pop-up books, and the shut-in aunts are former synchronized swimmers.

Finally, I love the production design of the show -- I absolutely love the costumes, which tend to be all over the place from 40s to 70s, but always are amazing. I love the visual jokes (Chenoweth's character is named Olive, and she recently got a rain slicker with olives on it, and Emerson Cod the detective's slicker had fish on it). And I love the myriad movie visual references, especially since they are so Hitchcock-heavy (The Birds, Vertigo, Psycho and Suspicion have all been copied. I'm really hoping for the key scene from Notorious before the end of the series, but that may be asking for too much).

Sure, there are faults with the show. The strange premise is often bent or broken -- some things come alive and others don't, but there's no real rhyme or reason to it (dead leaves but not wood? dead fruit but not other baking supplies?). There are a couple of camera and editing problems -- a visual joke involving a one-eyed aunt in the pilot episode was done backwards, and it drives me nuts every time I see it.

But its faults are easily forgotten when weighed against the fact that there's really nothing else like it. For people who like movies and old-fashioned TV more than reality TV or procedural dramas, this is a wonderful show. Plus, Lee Pace is hot.

The Windy City is mighty purty

OK, this isn't really movie or television related, but to me it is entertaining. I don't know what it is about Illinois, but I don't get angry at corruption there, just amused. I find the Daleys, Al Capone & the rest of the Chicago Outfit, "vote early vote often," and even Governor Blagojevich strangely loveable. Maybe it's because even in corruption, Chicago & Illinois are misfits (how bad do you have to be to be ostracized by the Five Families??). Maybe it's because I watch too many old gangster movies. Maybe it's because the corruption there is always so ridiculously outrageous (What makes a governor think he can get away with a "corruption crime spree?" And let's not even talk about Chicago city aldermen, or 3 others of the last 7 governors.) Or maybe it's just that I love Chicago so much that even its state can do no wrong. So even while on one level I'm very sad about Governor Blagojevich, and apalled by what he did, it doesn't make me love Illinois any less.

Wallace and Gromit Are Back

So very excited that the boys are back. Official site and less official video

My new obsession

Pushing Daisies is my new obsession. I found it last week and immediately fell in love. I've ordered Season 1 on DVD and watched all of this season so far at least 3 times each.



More about why I love the show to follow.

Wallace and Gromit!!

I love Wallace and Gromit for several reasons:

1. The patience involved in claymation always amazes me.
2. Cheese!!
3. Rube Goldberg devices in all their delightful frivolity

And so I'm super happy with Hulu right now for adding Cracking Contraptions to their lineup. Now if only they could get A Close Shave. . . .

Harvie Krumpet online

Don't know how long this will be up (it's on the Youtube screening room), but it's worth checking out. Harvie Krumpet on Youtube:

Movie Analogy

These imposed sartorial standards in China remind me of, of course, the ridiculous hoop skirts on Siamese women in this movie.