Creation

You will walk out of Creation feeling a lot smarter than when you walked in. That's not really a comment on the availability of the film as a mass market commodity so much as a sign that this film works with ideas. Creation stars Paul Bettany as Charles Darwin and chronicles the writing and publication of The Origin of the Species.
Directed by Jon Amiel - a director who has been absent as of late but was very much the thing 20 years ago with Singing Detective and Queen of Hearts - Creation wavers between beautifully visualized imagery and intimate dramatic scenes that try to re-imagine the conflict going on in the marriage of Charles and Emma (Jennifer Connelly) Darwin. There's some strong tension in various scenes between Bettany and Connelly (married in real life). Another scene depicts scientific allies of the time Thomas Huxley and Joseph Hooker (a confidant Toby Jones and Benedict Cumberbatch) haranguing Darwin to go even further in the direction of declaring "God is dead."
Film appropriately starts out with Darwin recalling his expedition to the Galapagos Islands, where he trades beads and buttons for three native children that are taken back to England. Likewise another parable-like recollection involves an orangutan that dies in the care of the London Zoo. One of the Darwin's daughters has died and we see her in flashbacks but also as a figment of Charles' imagination. These moments in particular have a emotional zeal that help define this film. And that's good because that narrative twist otherwise seems too close to the imaginary figure Bettany played in A Beautiful Mind. Another moment in Creation, one where the couple make love after months of arguing (over religious issues) and find the inspiration to continue on the publication of the visionary book curiously reminded me of a similar moment in JFK where Costner and Spacek have been arguing but reunite in lovemaking upon hearing of RFK's assassination. Creation does seem to waver between moments such as these and loftier images like the following.
We see a bird fall from a nest unto the ground below and the action slows to reveal the course of nature in time-lapse motion. We see grass grow through the bird's now decomposing body. Reminds of a Brothers Quay short film. Creation would be worth seeing just for this sequence alone. The film as a whole will certainly appeal to fans of 19th century science while the pacing will keep short attention spanners at bay.

Killing Kasztner

Killing Kasztner, subtitled The Jew who Dealt with Nazis, offers an illuminating perspective on the most important war in history. This documentary from filmmaker Gaylen Ross revolves around Rezso Kasztner and his efforts to save Hungarian Jews during WWII. The story continues after the war offering the view that 1950s Israel was not unlike McCarthy skewed America as Kasztner, now a government official, is accused of being a Nazi collaborator and goes on trial.
Kasztner was assassinated in Tel Aviv in 1957 but the story continues after that as people who were among those saved by his actions provide a testament. Ross finds some of these survivors and eventually interviews the man who over 50-years ago as a young right wing radical killed Kasztner. This is perhaps the most gripping part of the film as he recounts the shooting at the spot where it happened. Vintage newsreel and archival clips help paint the reality of black and white times.
While this doc concerns Jewish themes the larger picture has uncanny parallels with our own current status in the world. If a person (Kasztner) had to bribe Adolf Eichmann (and you had to deal with Eichmann personally - this is not a negotiation that can handled by some lieutenant) with money and war supplies to free people who would otherwise be shipped to death camps how is that any different than our own CIA dealing with people during the Afghan-Russian war in the 1980s that 20-years later would be deemed enemy terrorists? In other words, war involves having to deal with the devil, and even a person of the highest morals is tainted by mere association.
Killing Kasztner shows plainly how the honor of one generation can be twisted out of perspective so easily by the next. Killing Kastner opens exclusively for a limited run at the Angelika on Friday. Additionally next month (March 9—21) the MFAH (also the Jewish Community Center and the Holocaust Museum) will run several Jewish themed or related films. Among them is Flame & Citron a brilliant Danish film that depicts the strange alliance and double crosses between the Allied Underground and Nazis and collaborators.

Valentine's Day

Keep repeating "It's charming, it's charming." It's not but just keep repeating that. Valentine's Day offers a kind of tour de force of nearly two dozen name actors intersecting at the crossroads of forlorn love and undying devotion. The action takes place in L.A. so that instantly lets you know most of the cast didn't have to travel far to the set, plus it explains all the recognizable faces that pop in to deliver one-line retorts, like the angry guy in traffic (Joe Mantegna) or the airline rep (Larry Miller).
One the bright side, I never got that ridiculous feeling that you get with romcoms like The Ugly Truth or The Proposal or Did You Hear About the Morgans? Which is to say the Valentine's Day never tries to be incredulous. But as directed by Garry Marshall VD never attempts anything cutting edge. Here's a short list of some of the talent involved: Bradley Cooper, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Alba, Kathy Bates, Ashton Kutcher, Julia Roberts, Jessica Biel, Jamie Foxx, Topher Grace, Jennifer Garner, Patrick Dempsey, Eric Dane, and the list goes on.
The dark side is that all of the better actors, acclaimed newcomers like Hathaway who should know better, are just steering through this thing like they're mugging on a television comedy skit. It's one thing for Hathaway to take a paycheck role like Bride Wars where she at least plays a character and another thing to just coast by on her good looks and friendly smile. Multiply that by the number of actors on display.
Valentine's Day is a bumpy road with only slight detours onto the shoulder of same. Ironically in a movie full of actors doing their schtick there are moments of freshness when two current hotties, who don't even pretend they can act, appear. It feels alive because they don't try, they just are (themselves). Go figure, those two are the Taylors, Swift and Lautner.

Cop Out red band trailer

Kevin Smith directs his first film for a major studio when WB releases Cop Out later this month.

Michael Stuhlbarg is A Serious Man

People may or may not be familiar wth Michael Stuhlbarg from his lead role as Larry Gopnik in the Coen Brothers' A Serious Man. Certainly the Coen Brothers have achieved a rather bold mixture of masterful film making with a purposefully convoluted storyline complimented by a perfect no-name cast. As singular as A Serious Man comes across it has the comic chops to be regarded as one of the Coen's best, especially in upcoming years. Similar accolades found The Big Lebowski years after its initial release.
While A Serious Man marks Stuhlbarg first role in a Coen Brothers film he had met them years ago when they saw a play he was in. "I had done a read through of a play years ago with Frances McDormand and we had met," Stuhlbarg tells Free Press Houston in phone interview to promote the release of A Serious Man on DVD this Tuesday (February 9). Stuhlbarg has divided his time between television, some feature film work and notable roles on Broadway. In 2005 Stuhlbarg was nommed for a Tony Award for his part in The Pillowman.
Stuhlbarg admits he "fell in love with the script the first time through. They [the Coens] want you to honor each 'ellipse' or 'um' that's written. What you hear on the screen is what was written on the page," notes Stuhlbarg. When asked what scene was the most difficult in terms of keeping from cracking up Stuhlbarg mentioned two. "It was hard to keep a straight face the first time we shot the lawyer scene with Adam Arkin. That and the cot in the living room scene I did with Richard Kind [Uncle Arthur]. The situation was so ridiculous you had to laugh."
A Serious Man was shot in the Twin Cities area of Minnesota and while the story takes place in the mid-1960s in a suburb called St. Louis Park the house scenes were lensed in an inauspicious neighborhood in nearby Bloomington. Stuhlbarg recalls the scenes that took place on the roof of the house when he climbs up to adjust the television antenna. The fantastic thing about the sequence is how the perspective establishes that there are are no fences anywhere in this quaint middle class subdivision. "They removed trees for the duration of the shoot, they re-sodded the lawns so they matched," recalls Stuhlbarg. Some small bits of digital trickery were used to make the leaves of different trees match. Interiors of the Gopnik residence were "a few blocks away from where we shot the front of the houses."
A set prop referred to throughout the film, Uncle Arthur's Mentaculus, or a probability map of the universe, turns out to be page after page of psychotic scribbling. "That was created by L.A.-based artists Michael Sell and Eric Karpeles. It was unreal to thumb through it," says Stuhlbarg adding, "All through the film Larry is constantly learning things about himself and others."