San Diego Reader December 15, 2016 57
EIGHT MINUTES IS NOT ENOUGH FOR PABLO LARRAÍN I owe my love of Pablo Larraín to the San Diego Latino Film Festival. Their programming of Tony Manero and Post Mortem was tantamount to extracting a giant thorn from this reporter’s paw. Tony Manero has the power to pll one out of a theater seat and drag their face across the screen. And like any great artist, Larraín’s work continues to grow and advance with each passing film. Eight minutes into what was
scheduled to be a 20-minute interview, the rep broke in with the equivalent of a bartender’s “Last call.” A scramble to choose a final question on the list of 20 proved to be a fizzler. Not to worry. A return talk when Neruda — the final installment of his trilogy set during the brutal Pinochet regime — opens in January is already in the works. Consider this Part 1. Scott Marks: What was it like for a child of the movies growing up in war- torn Santiago? Pablo Larraín: I guess like any other kid in the world who gets access to movies. There were movies that stayed with me, that modified my childhood and made me think I could be a filmmaker. Those movies are very different and they come from different sources. For example, I remember how important to me was Zemeckis’s Back to the Future. It was fascinating on many levels but mostly for me it was a lesson on how to work and build with time. Then I realized that the only way to do that was through cinema. There is no other mechanic or artistic activity that could actually do something like that other than cinema. The same year I saw [Werner
Herzog’s] Fitzcarraldo, which is on the other side of filmmaking. I thought it was fascinating and beautiful. Not just the movie itself, but also it was like a map to or metaphor for what cinema is. It’s just this guy pushing the absurd — a boat over a hill — and trying to get there by making an opera in the middle of the Amazon. This is what the absurdity of cinema does; people pushing this boat over a hill. I was captivated by that. SM: Talk about absurdity. In Tony Manero you have a middle-aged family man of sorts who is obsessed with Saturday Night Fever, and who will stop at nothing to win a John Travolta lookalike contest. You were what, two years old when Saturday Night Fever opened in Chile on August 10, 1978. With all of the films that played Chile in 1978, why Saturday Night Fever? And considering what goes on in the film, did Paramount ever give you any grief for taking liberties with their product? PL: Many films were banned due to the dictatorship. Not every movie would make it to Chile. Saturday Night Fever was very successful. Paramount was
actually very generous with us. The allowed us to use the material. Even Travolta had to sign an agreement because we were using his face. We had to deal with the union back then, the Actor’s Guild, so everybody was like super generous. SM: Remember that scene in Masculin Féminen when Jean Pierre Leaud rushes the booth and proceeds to read the faulty projections the riot act? You did Godard one better there. I’m a non- violent person by nature, but I can’t tell you how many time I’ve wanted to storm the booth and introduce the projectionist’s head to a lamp housing. Thank you for the vicarious thrill. PL (Laughing): You are most welcome. SM: And thank you for introducing the world to Alfredo Castro. Where did you find him and why didn’t he have a role in Jackie? He would have made a great John John. PL (Laughing): It would have been hard. I don’t think he’s very fluent in English. He was a teacher who taught me in drama school. He’s a very well- regarded actor. He’s been so important in my career, and I’m glad he was able to find other jobs because of it. SM: I’ve actually seen him laugh in other movies. PL (Laughing): I think we allowed him to smile in a couple of my movies. SM: I just finished speaking with Peter Sarsgaard. He said, “Ask him about how the water changes the quality of the film.” PL: Well, it’s true. It’s incredible how a film being processed differently will actually change the quality of the image depending on where you make it. That’s why with digital, movies have lost all their identity. Every film pretty much looks the same. SM: It’s TV on a larger scale. PL: Exactly... [Just when things are getting rolling, the studio rep interjects with, “We have time for one other question.” My heart sinks. Since the purpose of the interview was to promote Jackie, I scramble to find the first question on the list related to the film.] SM: Merriman Smith was an eyewitness to history, and his account of the assassination took home the Pulitzer prize. How much of the dialogue comes from transcripts and how much liberty did you take? PL: There’s a few things that come from transcripts that we did from her...when Jackie talked with Arthur Schlesinger. But everything else is fictionalized by screenwriter Noah Oppenheim. There are a lot of historically documented things, facts that happened. What really matters here is how we approach the fiction.
— Scott Marks
LISTINGS All reviews are by Scott Marks, Matthew Lickona, and Duncan Shepherd. Priorities are indicated by one to five stars and antipathies by the black spot. Unrated movies are for now unreviewed. Thousands of past reviews are available online at
SDReader.com/movies.
Allied — Say this for director Robert Zemeckis: it takes guts to open a World War II story in Casablanca and then tell a story that turns the World War II classic Casablanca inside out. (Apparently, the problems of three little people do amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world.) But that may be all that can be said for him here. And guts, alas, are not the same as energy, or scenebuilding, or even a sense of felt life. (When your wife asks to spend a day forgetting about the war, maybe don’t take her to picnic within sight of a downed bomber?) Even when stars Brad Pitt and Marion Cotillard — Allied spies who start to enjoy their assumed roles as husband and wife during an assassination operation — are in the midst of a party or a war zone, the music and talk and bombs and gunfire fade into the background, so that they hardly seem real. (Often, they aren’t.) And when they’re alone? They might as well be the last souls on earth (Pitt in particular looks miserable enough to have witnessed Armageddon). That makes Cotillard the sole bright spot, and even she risks being upstaged by her fantastic wardrobe. 2016. — M.L. ★ (IN WIDE RELEASE)
Almost Christmas — Strap Tyler Perry to a theater seat and use this to give him the Clockwork Orange treatment. The impeccably executed opening credit sequence, effortlessly distilling a 40-year marriage down to two minutes, gave reason to think this could be something more than just 2016’s annual nightmare-before- Christmas film. We’ve seen variations on this plot dozens of times before: it’s the first Christmas since mom died, and potentially the last chance the Meyers family will celebrate together in their childhood home. Every facet of the ensemble is given a chance to shine, with Mo’Nique and J.B. Smoove working overtime to deliver laughs. Sentimental and schmaltzy, but never sickeningly so. Even the de rigueur impromptu dance number or “say no to drugs” subplot can’t put a dent in the overall charm. No guilt-peddling here, just a surprisingly diverting shared experience. With Danny Glover, Gabrielle Union, Kimberly Elise, and Romany Malco. David E. Talbert directs. 2016. — S.M. ★★★ (IN WIDE RELEASE)
Arrival — Denis Villeneuve’s latest is an artier — certainly moodier and less entertaining, thanks to Amy Adams’s deeply inward protagonist and a blue-gray palette designed to contrast the barren present with the fruitful past — version of M. Night Shyamalan’s Signs. That is, it’s an alien-landing movie in which the alien landing is revealed to be not the point, but rather, the thing that helps to reveal the point. There, the revelation was that faith is possible because things really do happen for a reason. Here...well, there’s no sense in spoiling things, but there’s a reason why Adams’s opening voiceover states that she’s not sure she believes in beginnings and endings. It might have helped if the story had spent more time considering the ostensible issue: how to communicate with aliens who write with (admittedly captivating) coffee-cup stains? (Did nobody think to draw a pictograph? How do both sides make the leap from concrete to abstract? Etc.) Also maybe the actual issue. Because...everyone dies eventually? And
MOVIE
spouses shouldn’t keep life-or-death secrets from each other? 2016. — M.L. ★ (IN WIDE RELEASE)
Assassin’s Creed — The latest video game to make it to the big screen stars two- time Oscar-nominee Michael Fassbender and Academy Award-winners, Marion Cotillard and Jeremy Irons. Sounds like a lot of prestige to be left in the hands of director Justin Kurzel (MacBeth). 2016. (IN WIDE RELEASE)
Beyond the Gates — Let’s hope Hasbro doesn’t get their hands on this concept. Estranged brothers come across the ancient titular game while dissolving their long- absent father’s video store, and its discovery helps to explain the old man’s disappearance while unlocking a few demons of its own. The opening credit swing through the bowels of a VHS player, followed by a cameo appearance by North Hollywood’s Eddie Brandt’s Saturday Matinee (substituting for Dad’s shuttered shop), pointed to a kindred spirit. The fresh-faced cast and first-time director Jackson Stewart give it their best, but once the tape enters the machine, all bets are off. The moment the contrivance kicks in, what follows is a game of gore that quickly emerges as an interactive snooze. Credit is due for at least trying to resist camping things up and demonstrating an eye for color design. With: Graham Skipper, Chase Williamson, and Sara Malakul Lane. 2016 — S.M. ★ (DIGITAL GYM)
Bleed for This — It’s Rocky joins the Head Injury Club for Men in this half sports/half disease-of-the-week biopic of world “champeen” pugilist Vinny Pazienza. After a head-on collision finds “Paz’s” sawbones fitting him for a Halo vest, his spirit and determination… Must I go on? The trailer offered a Viewer’s Digest condensed version, but the characters are so rich and the acting so absolute, the finished product proved impossible to resist. There’s a lot more to Miles Teller’s performance than wadding a pair of leopard print Speedos, a moment that didn’t go unnoticed in the trailer and one that will no doubt act as a prime selling tool. And his unassuming work in Sully combined with this blustery turn as Paz’s alcoholic trainer should guarantee Aaron Eckhart at least one best supporting actor nom. Generally one to round down a two-and-a-half star review, the “Executive Producer: Martin Scorsese” credit led me in the other direction. Ben Younger (Boiler Room) directs. 2016. — S.M. ★★★ (AMC MISSION VALLEY; ARCLIGHT LA JOLLA)
The Brand New Testament — A lighthearted/darkhearted romp through modern misery, frontloaded with imagination and light on the finish. Theodicy — the contrasting of a supposedly all-good, all-powerful God with the manifest evil in the world — is a matter for theologians (or at least Lex Luthor in Batman vs. Superman). Jaco Van Dormael’s cuddly-caustic fable is content
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