cinema seen

I just saw Wendy and Lucy. At one point I thought about walking out, but thought better of it as I was one of four in the theater and didn't want to set a bad example. (Glad I stayed.) It initially felt like a nothing of a movie. I had been avoiding seeing it as I thought it might be a downer. It was and it wasn't. The two women sitting directly behind me whimpered and cried through a lot of it though. I went to the Film Forum almost immediately after reading a portion of a New York Times review stating: "...registers the natural beauty of the Pacific Northwest with unostentatious affection." That being said, the portrayal wasn't anywhere near the level that it was in Old Joy, which I think I like considerably more - it did however leave me craving a(ny) female character. Most of the dialogue (monologue?) in the film is between Wendy and Lucy. Will Oldham has an eerily familiar cameo as a face-tattooed train/crust punk. I guess what I am ultimately trying to say is that it was good in the end because it made me feel like I wasn't alone in the world, which might be a goal of some filmmaking. My life as compared to Wendy's is remarkably more whole and social. While there is little back story, in a scene where she walks down some wildflower-edged train tracks it is basically understood that she is completely alone. It all comes down to the beautiful closing scene, that could have been a short in it's own right, and feels like the entire film is shaped around it.

I also saw Revolutionary Road recently, which I wasn't expecting to like either. It was remarkable. It built up and up and was full of nuances and onion skin falling away. The most powerful scene I thought (spoiler?) was when the fair housewife ran into the forest to escape her human domestication. Michael Shannon killed it, too. He was excellent in Shotgun Stories and I look forward to seeing more of his work. This also has a (nearly) closing scene that shaped the whole film, however this one, if shown at the beginning, would have been meaningless. I just realized too that the director, Sam Mendes, is directing The Cherry Orchard just down the street that I may go see.

The Reader is good for design and textures - general aesthetics of the time.
I also have The Cruise and Helvetica yet to be seen, on loan from the library.