It's always a tightrope when foreign filmmakers, particularly those from the Hong Kong market, come to American shores to ply their trade. Though it doesn't appear that Wong Kar Wai is going to be setting up shop permanently in Hollywood (nobody's going to be after him to direct the next Die Hard installment), My Blueberry Nights marks his first English-language film, with an entirely American and British cast. It shows that the director is not just a foreign-language specialty, his gifts are quite apparent even when the veil of mystery is lifted for English-speaking audiences once the subtitles are gone. However, My Blueberry Nights also shows that for all Wong's rightly vaunted abilities and passionate sense of cinema, there are some glaringly obvious rough patches in his approach, brought into sharp relief by transplanting the action from the teeming streets of Hong Kong to the wide open spaces of America, where his instincts for actors seem less sure.
An odd road movie of sorts that spends most of its time hanging around in diners, bars, and casinos (and precious little of it on the road), My Blueberry Nights will be noted in many quarters for it being the feature film-acting debut of jazz chanteuse Norah Jones. To put it briefly: No actress is she. Playing a lovelorn young woman named Elizabeth, she first shows up in a Brooklyn diner run by Jeremy, a charming Manchester immigrant played with the expected lighthearted dash by Jude Law. In the middle of a breakup, Elizabeth moons about the caf� eating the excellent pie (best in the city!) and chatting with Jeremy, winning his heart even as hers is breaking over somebody else. Then Elizabeth ups and skips out, landing next in Memphis, where she waitresses at a caf� and a bar, telling everyone she's working two jobs to save up for a car.
Although the first segment is supposed to be this episodic tale's romantic backbone, it stands in weak relief against the Memphis-set scenes. There, Elizabeth meets a sad drunk named Arnie, played with masterful ease by David Strathairn, who seems able to wring more pathos out of a glance than Law can in three pages worth of dialogue. The stormy cause of Arnie's trauma, his ex-wife, comes whipping into the bar in the form of Rachel Weisz, performing here on utter screaming overdrive and ratcheting what had been a moody jazz number up into a raucous electric blues howler. Later, Elizabeth washes up in the Nevada desert at a down-at-the-heels casino where she falls in with a bleach-blonde cardsharp played by Natalie Portman with all the jagged edges of a young Sharon Stone. Meanwhile, Elizabeth sends cryptic postcards back to Jeremy, pining handsomely behind his diner counter.
The whole affair can appear terribly artificial, of course, what with all those iconic bar and diner scenes, the wind-whipped desert of Nevada sequence, and the soundtrack of Ry Cooder, Motown, and jazz standards by Jones herself. Wong keeps himself from falling down the same trap of freeze-dried Americana that some foreign directors like Wim Wenders always seem to do, and he's able to do that by hewing to the same kind of potent heartbreak that nailed down overstylized romances like In the Mood for Love and 2046. True, the look of My Blueberry Nights suffers somewhat from not having Wong's usual cinematographer Christopher Doyle on deck, but Darius Khondji does admirable work nonetheless (those close-ups of ice-cream melting in rivulets into pie). Wong's decision to film on location across the country pays off also; although he could have easily reconstructed most of the film's sets on a Toronto backlot, there is a certain grit of authenticity visible behind these admittedly melodramatic stories (scripted with a pulp writer's punch and occasional laziness by mystery author Lawrence Block).
What doesn't work in any way, really, is Jones herself. Given the dialogue's sometimes over-obvious nature, Jones's blank expression and dull line readings bring little to the party; she is only occasionally juiced into more expressive performance when the actor playing opposite (particularly Strathairn and Portman) is working in overdrive. It's a nearly soulless bit of acting, and frustrating because of how it hampers the film from ever really taking flight. As a first English-language film, My Blueberry Nights is mostly a success, though set apart from Wong's previous work in that it won't have people coming back over and over again. The film does, however, whet ones appetite for what might come next.
It's the rhubarb days that get you down.
See Also
Friday 27 June 2008
My Blueberry Nights - 7/1/2008
Thursday 19 June 2008
You don't need a tent for Summer Camp II - maybe just an umbrella
The weather may not cooperate, but not even wind and rain should dampen the spirit at 107.7FM/The End's "Summer Camp II," Saturday at Marymoor Park. The six bands on the bill are all high-energy enough to light a fire under their mostly young fans.
Despite the name, there won't be any camping at the all-day festival, as inviting as the woodsy site may be. The concert area isn't permanent — the stage goes up each spring and is taken down in the fall — but it's state-of-the-art. Gently sloping, grass-covered berms surrounding the stage provide good sight lines, and separate the performing space from the big food-vendor area.
Parking is close and easy. Because the show is on a Saturday, the Marymoor Mess — the slow-down that develops on the freeway offramp to the park, when concertgoers meet the last of the evening commute on weekdays — shouldn't be too much of a problem.
The bands on the bill aren't household names, but are well-known to fans of the modern rock station The End.
Flogging Molly takes Irish folk-music traditions to new levels of intensity and energy. The vocals have a bit of Irish accent, and the band's attack is based on acoustic guitars, fiddle and banjo, but the music is delivered with hard-rock energy.
Pennywise, named after the monster in Stephen King's novel "It," is a speed-punk band that's celebrating its 20th anniversary with one of its biggest hits ever, "The Western World." This band will really wind up the crowd, creating mosh pits in the grass.
Nada Surf may bring down the noise and intensity levels a bit with its big, dramatic, pop-oriented sound, which is impressive coming from just three guys. Their love songs may provide the inspiration for some slow dancing in the grass.
MGMT is the newest band on the bill, noted by Rolling Stone and others as one of the standouts at the SXSW festival in Austin in March. The hard-driving New York band's first hit single, "Time to Pretend," has been featured on The End for months now.
Armor for Sleep is a head-banging, guitar-screeching, harmonizing pop/rock band with a tight, commercial sound. Not challenging, but fun.
The Flobots is a minimalist rock/hip hop band from Denver.
Patrick MacDonald: 206-464-2312 or pmacdonald@seattletimes.com
See Also
Thursday 12 June 2008
Spears undergoing psychiatric evaluation
The 26-year-old was taken from her home to hospital yesterday by ambulance.
Speaking to People magazine, Spears' representative, Sam Lutfi, said that Spears was undergoing evaluation on the orders of her psychiatrist.
"She went willingly," Lufti told the magazine. "It was like something in her heart was telling her she should go. She knew something was wrong."
UCLA Medical Center declined to confirm if Spears was a patient, citing confidentiality.
Spears' parents and Lufti were pictured leaving the hospital on Thursday. When asked if her daughter was "OK" by reporters, the singer's mother Lynne said: "Yes."
Friends and family have said they believe that the 26-year-old is suffering from bipolar disorder or other psychiatric problems.
An unnamed source told Us Weekly that Spears had not slept since Saturday.
The source said that the "intervention" by Spears' family and psychiatrist had been planned for a number of days.
The National Alliance on Mental Illness in the US has pleaded for Spears' privacy during her treatment.
Friday 6 June 2008
The Walkmen announce new album, tour dates
�??You And Me�?? was written over two years in a warehouse in Philadelphia and old nightclub in Chelsea, New York and recorded in two installments - the first at Sweet Tea studios in Oxford, Mississippi with engineer John Agnello, who�??s previously worked with Dinosaur Jr., The Hold Steady and Sonic Youth), and in a couple of sessions in New York's Gigantic Studios with engineer Chris Zane.
The track listing is:
�??Dónde está la Playa�??
�??Flamingos (for Colbert)�??
�??On the Water�??
�??In the New Year�??
�??Seven Years of Holidays (for Stretch)�??
�??Postcards from Tiny Islands�??
�??Red Moon�??
�??Canadian Girl�??
�??Four Provinces�??
�??Long Time Ahead of Us�??
�??The Blue Route�??
�??New Country�??
�??I Lost You�??
�??If Only It Were True�??
Meanwhile, the band have scheduled the following dates for August:
New York, NY Bowery Ballroom (18, 19)
Los Angeles, CA Troubadour (21, 22)
Portland, OR Doug Fir (27)
Vancouver, BC Richards on Richard (28)
Victoria Rifflandia Festival (29)
Seattle, WA Bumbershoot Festival (30)
--By our New York staff.
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