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| The Fault in Our Stars. © 2014, 20th Century Fox. Included under "fair use" for criticism, comment. |
John Green’s novel adaptation to The Fault in Our Stars is opening today. While I have not seen the movie yet, I have read the book and it was the best thing I’ve read in years. For a story this good, labeling it “Young Adult (YA)” almost sounds like a pejorative, as it immediately conjures up imagery of Twilight, Harry Potter, or Divergent, or any other number of interesting but sloppily written and executed stories for a less-than-discerning audience. The other label, that it is a “teen caner love story” or something to that effect, draws immediate comparisons to the movie A Walk to Remember—a likable but unfortunately saccharine movie panned by critics. The novel, The Fault in Our Stars, if not the movie, defy both of these categories.
Rather than
explain why directly, I’d like to share a list of seven other movies that I
feel are in the same spirit as The Fault in Our Stars. Some movies
paint-by-numbers and follow a winning formula that nearly guarantees its audience
a happy ending within its first few minutes. Then there are films that make
another sort of pact with their audience, and that is simply to be honest,
sometimes ruthlessly so through the filter of fiction, and yet somehow retain
its heart. These rare gems of film are among my all-time favorites, and as it
happens I’m not alone: All but one of them have over 90% on Rotten Tomatoes and
have come out in the last ten years. Instead of ranking these movies, I ordered
them in such a way as to weave a narrative of my own…
1.
Once
(2006)
How
do I describe Once for people who
haven’t seen it? If I say it’s a musical, you might think Rogers and
Hammerstein, and that’s the furthest thing it is from. And yet, it is a
musical, but an organic one. The two characters in the movie are musicians in
real life as well as in the story, and the songs occur so naturally that the
beginning and end of songs feel like the tides rolling in and out on the beach.
This Irish indie film is so minimalist that it doesn’t even bother to name its
too lead characters—not that you’d notice if someone didn’t point that out to
you. That’s the magic power this movie has—to make the characters and
situations feel so real that you’d almost think you were watching a
documentary, but a fun and incredibly heart-felt one at that. This story is
about a man and woman who have a chance encounter, the intangible but ever-present
mutual friend they have in music, and how they change the course of each
other’s’ lives.
2. The Spectacular Now (2013)
Speaking
of great minimalist indie films, here’s another. From the writers that brought
you the screenplay of 500 Days of Summer
comes the movie adaptation of the book by Tim Tharp. This movie features rising
star Shailene Woodley (also in The Fault
in Our Stars) and Miles Teller in the lead roles. From the first time
Woodley’s face appears on-screen, sans makeup, hovering over
passed-out-teen-partier Sutter (Teller), it’s clear that The Spectacular Now is set on a much different course than your
typical over-produced, glitzy teen movie. Rather, it eschews the gratuitous in
exchange for the honest and psychologically bare instead. This is at times
sweet, at times disturbing and always unflinching in its look at first love.
3. 500 Days of Summer (2009)
I mentioned that the writers who adapted The Spectacular Now, Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber, also wrote
500 Days of Summer because both
movies deserve a spot on this list. Zooey Deschanel and Joseph Gordon Levitt
both give excellent performances in this quirky but poignant film that reviews
the course of a relationship with two coworkers who work at a greeting card
company. It’s the perfect backdrop for
exploring how love can seem like an unstoppable force one moment, and false and
trite and crappy the next. In the end, “things” seem to work out, even though
the movie warns us in the beginning that they won’t. It’s an irresistibly
charming and upbeat story. It also features an enjoyable supporting role from
Chloe Grace Moretz as the no-nonsense younger sister to Gordon Levitt’s
love-struck character.
4. Let Me In (2010)
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| Chloe Grace Moretz in Let Me In. © 2010, Overture Films. Included under "fair use" for criticism, comment. |
Chloe
Grace Moretz, aside from a few great standout roles, seems to be type-cast in a
lot of horror movie remakes. However, with Let
Me In, it really worked in her favor. Let
Me In (2010) is a remake of the Swedish film, Let the Right One In (2008), based on the book of the same name
translated in English. I’m tempted to say it’s a certain kind of movie in much
the same way some would describe Twilight: “It’s a ______ movie.” But I’m not
going to do it. I simply refuse, just like I refuse to call Warm Bodies a “zombie” movie. It isn’t.
And thank goodness for that. The best way I can describe it is that Let Me In is a children’s romantic
horror movie. I’m fully aware these words don’t go together, and that’s the
genius of this film. They shouldn’t. This story shouldn’t work. At all. But not
only does it work, it works beautifully. A mysterious girl moves in next door
to a disturbed and troubled twelve-year-old boy. They form a very unorthodox
friendship and more, which has dire consequences for both of them and the
people in town. Taking place in the 80’s, it is altogether nostalgic,
sentimental, disturbing and gory, all at once. If you like your horror movie
served with a little more “brains” than the typical “undead” movie with no discernible
pulse, than this is a must see.
5.
Synecdoche,
New York (2008)
Not
all horror movies have monsters or graphic violence, though, but make no
mistake: Synecdoche, New York is not
for the faint of heart. With Synecdoche,
New York, screenwriter Charlie Kaufman set out to make a movie about all of
the real-life fears that plague him, and thus make a horror movie that isn’t a
horror movie at all, but a slow creep into all of life’s pitfalls and vagaries
that often make life extremely traumatic and challenging. We find ourselves
often repeating the same patterns and mistakes in life, and replaying
situations in our head until our lives begin to feel like an infinite regress—a
Droste effect (“mise en abyme”), as if standing between two mirrors. Such is
the case with Caden Cotard, a theatre director who won a MacArthur Award for
his rendition of Death of a Salesman.
Feeling the pressure to do something truly great, and brutally honest, he gets
lost in his own creation: an endless and infinitely repeating simulation of the
city build in a warehouse and housed by countless actors. To say that the movie
takes on a surreal quality is an understatement, and there is so much meta and
subtext to the movie you have to see it twice or more to really fully
appreciate it. It is simultaneously one of the most depressing and exhilarating
films I have ever watched, and it is also one of my favorites. If you are the
kind of person that appreciates the smallest details of a film being imbued
with subtle meaning (i.e. such as the character’s last name, “Cotard,” being
the name of a syndrome where someone believes they are dead), then this film is
for you. This film makes you work for your meal-- It had me ruminating for days
and weeks afterward—but if you can stomach it, this and the next movie on the
list are screenwriter Charlie Kaufman at his best.
6.
Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind (2004)
Another
great Charlie Kaufman movie with director Michael Gondry. Like The Fault in Our
Stars, the story of how the story gets its name very cleverly hits at its
premise with a story of its own. The film’s title is derived from a line in an
Alexander Pope poem, “Eloisa to Abelard,” in which Eloisa, so distraught by the
dissolution of her relationship with Abelard, wishes him to forget her. And
thus enters the premise of this movie, in which there exists a shady
work-from-a-white-van company that promises to relieve you of the pain of loss
by erasing the specific memories of a former loved one. You’ll wake up and
everything will go on as normal, except you’ll have no recollection of the
other person whatsoever. The movie takes place in the mind of Joel Barish,
played by an unusually sober Jim Carrey in a career best performance, as the
erasers try to remove his former love interest (played by Kate Winslet) from
his mind. As such, the whole movie takes on a dreamlike state as Barish
recounts the relationship as the memories begin floating away…
7. Her (2013)
Spike Jonze has directed a couple of Charlie Kaufman’s screenplays, and was a producer for Synecdoche, New York. But for Her, Spike Jonze wrote and directed the film himself. Kaufman and Jonze’s similarities in themes and how they approach movies is evident in Her. Theodore (Joaquin Phoenix) works for a futuristic company that ghost writes and “hand writes” (which looks a lot like a cursive font-type letter printed from a printer) sentimental letters to the loved ones of their clients. Theodore speaks to his computer, and the words as well as the sentiments within seem to materialize out of thin air. It’s a good set up for the entire film—it’s quirky, sentimental, and buried under an unsettling artifice. On the surface, Her is a story about a guy who falls in love with his advanced new Operating System (Scarlett Johansson). But it’s more than that. It’s a story about how we relate to technology and other people. It’s a story about loneliness, longing and the narratives we create in our own minds. It even hints at this concept of technology gaining self-awareness and even perhaps surpassing us. There’s a lot more to this movie than artificial intelligence. Joaquin Phoenix and the smoky, often vulnerable voice of Scarlett Johansson will draw you in and make you believe that it’s all too real.
Well, that’s my list. Let me know if you see (or have seen) any of these movies and tell me what you think. What movies make you think, and experience a little “infinity” in your finite hours?
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