Monsters

Released:  September 24^th, 2010

Rated:  R

Distributor:  Magnet Releasing

Starring:  Scoot McNairy, Whitney Able

Directed by:  Gareth Edwards

Written by:  Gareth Edwards

Personal Bias Alert:  went in with high expectations, knew there weren’t many monsters

7.3 of 10

            Perfection in movies is overrated.  A filmmaker can spend an inordinate amount of time and money trying to achieve a clean script, a stellar cast, and a flawless production, but the final product would inevitably be flawed.  It’s much more important (and much cheaper) to shoot for a film that is inviting, to make your audience feel like they’re snuggling into heavy blankets on a cold day and allow them to snuggle in deeper.  Mistakes can be forgotten, but that warm feeling a good movie engenders stays with you.  It’s difficult to find a more flawed, cozy film than Monsters, and I’m excited to add it to the lineup of films I return to year after year.

            Set few years after aliens crash-landed on Earth, photographer Andrew (Scoot McNairy) must escort his boss’s daughter Sam (Whitney Able) through alien-infested Mexico.  Why Sam is in Mexico in the first place is never made clear, but she speaks Spanish well and seems to be avoiding her impending marriage.  Her reluctance to return home is exceeded by Andrew’s annoyance at being drug away from the lucrative alien action.  Of course, the trip doesn’t go as planned, so Andrew and Sam get more action than either really want.

            Monsters is very much a two-hander, with Andrew and Sam being the only major characters in the film.  There’s a forced romance underlying their relationship that never quite feels natural, but they do have a great, non-sexual sort of chemistry that makes the film seem warm.  McNairy is the better actor, somehow managing to make Andrew’s stereotypical persona as a hardened opportunist seem lived in.  Able lacks the ability to overcome her rough characterization, but she does give Sam the vibe of a decent person, and there’s just something cute about the way she smiles at McNairy’s bemused smirk.  The charm of this film is that I would be happy watching these two do most anything.  That there’s aliens lurking in the background is just icing on the cake.

             I say the aliens are lurking because, despite its title, we don’t actually see too much of them.  This has led to some disappointment and accusations of false advertising, but there’s an argument to be made that the aliens aren’t the monsters that the title is referring to (otherwise it would be called Aliens, right?).  Instead, it might be the myriad of people who’ve taken advantage of the situation and caused Andrew and Sam harm, along with the people who are trying to help but only make the situation worse.  It’s a bit hard to glean a clear point from this movie, as the writing is lose and half-baked.  In fact, the script was more of an outline, with scenes and dialogue adlibbed as the tiny crew road tripped through Mexico and Texas.  The story itself is still clear, but deeper meaning and clean lines seem to have gotten thrown out the window at some point during the trip.

            That Gareth Edwards, who served as the cinematographer, production designer, and visual effects artist, along with writing and directing the whole shebang, was able to pull a film together in such a way is impressive.  The logistics of such a shoot were certainly daunting, especially considering their budget of less than $500,000, so the high quality of the cinematography (which varies from shaky-cam action to wistful holds) shows that Edwards is someone who instinctively understands how to present a movie.  How he pulled of what shots we do get of the aliens left me flabbergasted, as they look about as good as anything you’ll see in big-budget movies.

            The shooting style and budget inevitably led to some constraints that show in the final product, but Edwards and McNairy are talented enough to overcome them, giving this world an unusually warm, heartfelt little monster movie.

Other Notes: 

Ø  You know your guy’s not a hero when he rides on the back of a motorcycle.

Ø  Why does no one answer the phone in this movie?

Ø  What a climax! (pun intended)

Frank

Released:  August 22^nd, 2014

Rated:  R

Distributor:  Magnolia Pictures

Starring:  Domhnall Gleeson, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Scoot McNairy, Michael Fassbender, François Civil, Carla Azar

Directed by:  Lenny Abrahamson

Written by:  Jon Ronson, Peter Straughan

Personal Bias Alert:  likes offbeat music, relates to weirdos

8.6 of 10

Acceptance (n.): 

1.      The act of assenting or believing

2.      the fact or state of being accepted or acceptable

It’s a hard thing to achieve, acceptance.  Be it from a group of people or from yourself, it requires an honesty that most find uncomfortable.  It’s often easier to just keep it inside, to settle for a half-truth that leads to a half-acceptance.  But what would you to do if you couldn’t keep it inside, if you had to wear your oddities on your head for the world to see?  You would be forced to accept them, to become comfortable with them, and hopefully, to find a group of people who accept you along with the thing on your head.  All that’s already happened to the titular Frank (Michael Fassbender) when he rolls into Jon’s life sporting an oversized papier-mâché head that he never takes off.  Instead, it’s Jon (an excellent Domhnall Gleeson) who must go on this journey, pushed by his own frail desires and the otherworldly people who’re dragging him forward.

            Jon, you see, dreams of being a musician but fails to find inspiration in his humdrum life.  When Frank’s band, with the unintelligible name Soronprfbs, loses their keyboard player to a psychotic break, they allow Jon to fill in for a gig and eventually invite him to help record their new album.  Reactions within the band to Jon vary, with Frank being accepting and nurturing while theremin player Clara (Maggie Gyllenhaal) is hostile and dismissive.  The rest seem to not really care for but not overly care about Jon, leaving him increasingly isolated as the recording session drags out. 

Frank and the others undoubtedly have something that’s working, even if their music is far from the mainstream.  They throw themselves into their craft in a way Jon doesn’t understand but is determined to figure out.  He believes wholeheartedly that he can learn to become a great musician, but as he discovers, trying for your dream only brings you closer and closer to a resolution.  Many find it easier to remain in a dream state, which Jon might very well have been happy to do if Frank, Clara, and the others hadn’t swept him up.  But in the Irish countryside, surrounded by people who tell him exactly how good he is with an honesty as brutal as Clara’s sucker punches to the face, he’s stuck finding out just feasible his dream is.

Now, this movie may sound like a total drag, but it sugar-coats its blows with an acerbic wit that keeps the audience laughing the whole way through.  Whether it’s Jon’s exaggeratedly pathetic tweets or the borderline-insane environment that surrounds him, there’s always something to chuckle at amidst the darkness.  It’s also an understatedly beautiful film to take in.  The rustic cabin where the band records makes for a rich backdrop, allowing the fog from outside to blend with the cigarette smoke from inside to form an inescapable, otherworldly environment.  And the music that the band performs is odd, yes, but also hypnotically precise and always pleasurable to hear.

Frank is certainly an ambitious film, juggling so many moving parts that it’s a bit hard to take in.  It’s immediately enjoyable, yes, but you may not understand why you care so much about this little band of weirdos right off the bat.  Its offbeat tone seems aimed at more serious movie-goers, most of whom are likely to get frustrated by this obliqueness.  If you don’t find its meaning, Frank may strike you as enjoyable but trivial, and if you leave it without any further thought it might very well remain there.  Some pondering and a bit of space is what ultimately reveals the depths this film explores, which is something everyone might not have the time to give it.

Other Notes:  

Ø  The characters, for all their weirdness, never seem unreal.  It’s easy to imagine a group like this out in the woods banging away on their instruments, oblivious to the rest of the world.

Ø  The music was all performed live, so I guess all the actors are pretty good musicians.  Also, I guess Gyllenhaal learned how to play the theremin.