Knight of Cups

**Spoiler Alert**

Director: Terrence Malick/Starring: Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, Natalie Portman, Wes Bentley, Brian Dennehy, Antonio Banderas, Armin Mueller-Stahl and Cherry Jones

Terrence Malick has certainly earned his place in the American Directorial Pantheon. His visual stylings can be breathtaking, as in Tree of Life and films from his past, like Badlands, Days of Heaven and The New World meld his stunning visual aesthetic to powerful drama. But in his new film; Knight of Cups, as in his last film To the Wonder he seems to have become tethered to a storytelling mode that has become self-parodying. Many of the storytelling elements seen in his last few films are conspicuously present here: whispery voice-overs, protagonists drifting through beautifully surreal urban and desert landscapes, and fantastic images that almost overpower the narrative. Though opinions on the Tree of Life were ferociously polarized, I myself found it to be moving and ambitious but with Malick's follow-up projects, he seems to have become smitten with a style that is no longer new and visionary. His new movie carries all the aforementioned stylistic tics without breaking any new ground. Only the characters have changed.
If the film has a selling point, it's in its striking images, but two hours of incomparable beauty without a solid narrative feel like Koyaanisqatsi. I don't know that I want to see one more Terrence Malick film where a character walks slowly through the desert; contemplating whatever they're supposed to be contemplating while a mumbly voice-over whispers stuff like "find your way through the darkness." That which seemed so poetic in Tree of Life now seems almost satirical. Mr. Malick, thou hast drawn from the same well once too often.

The film, to its credit, doesn't follow conventional plotting, but tries to paint a portrait of a man through a series of images rather than dialogue and action. The man; Rick (Christian Bale), is a Hollywood something or other (forgive me if I missed what may have been obvious to you); actor or writer; I couldn't tell. Having failed in his marriage to a doctor named Nancy (Cate Blanchett), Rick finds himself lost in a world of Hollywood excess. Images of bacchanalian chaos in Los Angeles mansions and nightclubs, where Rick wanders among the beautiful bodies like a ghost, are a common sight.

When Rick isn't a presence at parties, we see him in various locations around Los Angeles, engaged in thoughtful walkabouts. I don't know that I've ever seen a film set in the City of Angels look lovelier. The skyline, streets, and the beaches we've seen in a million other films suddenly seems new and strange. Malick's brilliant cinematographer, Emmanuel Lubezki, who has also done fine work on Alejandro Innaritu's recent films, makes Los Angeles seem otherworldly. My guess is he accomplished this visual feat with a wide-angle lens.

We also see Rick's brief relationships with a series of women; none of whom seem particularly exceptional save for their looks. It is me or does every respective shot of the women consist of frolics on the beach or inside apartments? The only woman of any substance is Nancy; a doctor who we see treating the less beautiful citizens of the city. The only real dialogue we hear Rick share with any woman is also with Nancy, who still suffers emotional wounds from their failed marriage.
And finally we meet Rick's brother Barry (Wes Bentley) and his father Joseph (Brian Dennehy), who can never be in the same room together unless they're bickering. Again, we never really hear them interact, we only see them in various phases of their troubled familial relationship. We can see Barry bears more rancor for his father than Rick and isn't shy about expressing it. Toward the end of the film Rick seems to achieve some sort of reconciliation with his father, while Joseph; atoning for his failures as a father and husband, seeks spiritual absolution.

As Rick drifts from woman to woman, we see one has fallen deeply in love with him though she be married: Elizabeth (Natalie Portman). How do we know she's in love? Because we hear say as much in her own whispery voice-over (yes, everybody in this film has a whispery voice-over; even Rick's goatee--no, not really) and because she too (sarcasm alert) runs along the beach.

So, do all the beautiful images, which encompass city-scapes and southern Californian deserts and Las Vegas and Rick's innumerable women and the film's scant drama cohere into anything resembling a poignant whole? You be the judge. Do we care about Rick, who never seems to work but has plenty of time to chase women and walk around aimlessly? I can't say I did. Can a man be said to have troubles when he can partake of legions of sexy, beautiful women who come and go like the tide? If he was suffering, it wasn't obvious to me.

Malick's film is a lot like the women Rick romances; great to look at but superficial. But an hour and a half into the film, even the beautiful images, like the women, become tedious. Malick certainly has made great films and may again if he takes leave of the style he can't seem to let go of. Knight of Cups isn't an embarrassment but it falls well short of being an achievement.

Welcome to Me

**Spoiler Alert**

Director Shira Piven/Starring: Kristen Wiig, Wes Bentley, Joan Cusack, Jennifer Jason Leigh, James Marsden, Tim Robbins, Linda Cardellini and Thomas Mann

Shira Piven's Welcome to Me is one of those films that is so self-consciously weird that its weirdness becomes a tiresome contrivance. It goes well out of its way to be strange but at times it can elicit a chuckle when it isn't trying too hard to be bizarre. Director Shira Piven's film makes a reasonably good entrance, only to stumble then drag itself to a whimsical end.

Kristen Wiig plays Alice Klieg, a manic-depressive living in the fictional southern Californian town of Palm Desert. She spends part of her days in therapy, where Dr. Daryl Moffet (Tim Robbins) administers psychiatric guidance and prescriptions. The other part are spent in front of the T.V., idolizing Oprah Winfrey; lip-syncing her on-screen patter and gleaning morsels of Oprah-wisdom dispensed on air.

Among Alice's possessions are small stacks of losing lottery tickets. In an early scene, Alice tunes in to a televised lottery drawing. As the numbers are called, we see that Alice has won the $86 million (actually a lesser amount for a lump sum) jackpot. Ecstatic and dumbfounded, she can barely breath the words "I'm a winner" into the phone to claim the prize. True to her eccentric nature, she makes a hotel casino her second home then gathers her family and friends for a celebratory meal.

Enthralled with Oprah and her inspirational words, Alice and her friend Gina (Linda Cardellini), visit a live taping of an infomercial at a local T.V. station. During the show, when the host Gabe Ruskin (Wes Bentley) asks for a volunteer to demonstrate a product's effectiveness, Alice is only too eager to walk on stage. The show producer and staff in the booth express dismay when the erratic Alice, commandeers the show with her off-the-wall volatility.

Afterwards, the two brothers who control the station's content; Gabe and Rich Ruskin (James Marsden) invite Alice into their conference room to meet with the production staff. In the course of discussion, Alice lets it be known she wants her own show and when asked what it would be about, she says, "me." Of course the staff, including producer Dawn Hurley (Joan Cusack) and Deb Moseley (Jennifer Jason Leigh) voice their objections, only to be silenced by Alice's $15 million dollar check, which covers the projected production cost of her show.

I don't know about other film-goers, but I always find it excruciating to watch a film about a lottery winner who is hell-bent on squandering his/her fortune on frivolous nonsense. At this point in the film, the total and imminent exhaustion of the fortune seems like a fait accompli.

The show, with its zeitgeist-appropriate title Welcome to Me is naturally a bizarre spectacle that could have been the brainchild of David Lynch and Luis Bunuel.

The show begins with Alice arriving on a swan followed by re-enactments of slights suffered by Alice during her life, which share air-time with cooking segments featuring outlandish and unpalatable culinary creations, like a frosting-topped meatloaf. The staff, looking on in the booth, watch incredulously. The show manages to draw viewers and even a few admirers.

Gabe begins to have qualms about his brother's willingness to exploit Alice. Before long, Gabe and Alice begin a romance, which catches a snag during one of her rage-filled, flights of mental instability. Her erratic behavior and emotional vulnerability begin to impair her judgement. Alice has a fling with a fawning fan named Rainer Ybarra (Thomas Mann) which doesn't escape Gabe's notice.

As the show continues on its weird course and Alice's un-medicated self holds the production staff captive, her self-involved antics begin to wear on her loved ones, particularly her best friend Gina.

I suppose Piven's film is commentary on the narcissism gripping the country and it makes a convincing case of its pandemic reach. Approaching the topic with absurdist humor is a good way to go but the film asphyxiates in its weirdness. Don't get me wrong; I like weird but when it's a film's selling point rather than an element of its storytelling, it becomes a tiresome affectation, as it is here. As the story progresses, Alice's condition becomes less funny and more tedious.

A film like Welcome to Me could only end happily, which it does. Alice comes to acknowledge her ego-centrism and makes an extraordinarily selfless gesture to her best friend Gina.

The supporting cast was quite terrific when given their time though most are consigned to straight-men roles. When you have actors like Robbins and Cusack; who wield considerable comedic ability, exiled to the margins, it becomes a liability.

As previously stated, the film generates a modicum of laughs but I mostly found the movie to be a one-note joke. If manic-depressive narcissists are your company of choice, then Piven's film is for you. I suppose there is a better comedy out there dealing with this small cross-section of American society but that's another film. At least this one makes a case for not skipping one's meds.

Interstellar

**Spoiler Alert**

Director: Christopher Nolan/Starring: Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain, Casey Affleck, Mackenzie Foy, Ellen Burstyn, John Lithgow, Wes Bentley, Michael Caine, Matt Damon, Topher Grace, David Gyasi and William Devane

I've wondered for some time if Christopher Nolan might someday join the ranks of cinema's directorial best. I've always thought he was ferociously talented and his style distinctive and singular. After seeing his new film Interstellar, which he penned with his brother Jonathan, I can finally say, with forceful emphasis--yes; he is on his way to entering the Pantheon. I found his new film to be monumental, highly intelligent, moving, visionary and riveting.

When one considers the film in retrospect, it seems incredible that a movie that begins on a country farm surrounded by cornfields could carry us to another galaxy, through a black hole and conclude in a space station in orbit around Saturn. But as the staggering stretches of time and space leave us breathless and our minds expanded, it's the mysteries of humanity that ultimately make Nolan's film an emotionally-rich experience.

The film's pervasive, melancholy tone begins in the opening scenes, where we see a less-habitable Earth of the near future. Though what specifically ails the planet is never overtly stated, we can see from the dust storms that smother and lash a small farming community that things aren't good. We learn that most crops have suffered some sort of mysterious blight, while only corn withstands the blankets of dust that besiege the small town residents.

In this community lives Cooper (Matthew McConaughey), his daughter Murphy (Mackenzie Foy), his son Tom (Timothee Chalamet) and his father-in-law Donald (John Lithgow). Cooper, a former pilot and engineer who now farms to survive, never had the opportunity to parlay his piloting skills into a space mission.

As he and his family endure the ominous environmental plagues, Cooper must also contend with his kid's school teachers, who believe Tom will never be qualified to be anything but a farmer, and look askance at Murph's fascination with NASA's Apollo programs. Her teacher bears a bewildering skepticism and contempt for space travel; going so far as to call the moon landing a fraud perpetrated by the U.S. government.

Strange, ghost-like occurrences begin to take place in Murph's bedroom; phenomena she attributes to the supernatural, which Cooper's rational mind interprets scientifically. Because Murph shares her father's analytical prowess, she believes the manifestation is a coded message in Morse, which offer longitude and latitudinal coordinates to a place not far from their home. When Cooper and his daughter investigate the location, they find a secret government NORAD site and when shown inside, they discover the place is actually a NASA base where a secret project involving space travel is being undertaken.

Leading this project is a brilliant scientist named Professor Brand (Michael Caine), who learns Cooper's piloting skills would be ideal for the mission he is overseeing. The professor explains to Cooper that the Earth's atmosphere is changing molecularly; becoming more nitrogen rich, which will soon make it difficult for humans to breathe and survive. The professor's project, already in advanced stages, involves finding planets suitable for human colonization. When Cooper mentions, quite reasonably, that the planets in our solar system can't support life, the doctor tells him of a worm-hole discovered near Saturn; one most likely placed by an alien race that anticipated mankind's need to abandon the Earth. The worm-hole allows travelers passage between our galaxy and another and on the other side are several planets which are candidates for colonization. These planets happen to be circling a massive black hole--at a safe distance--called Gargantua. It is also explained that several scientists have already traveled to said planets and are exploring them, though their fates remain unknown. Professor Brand offers Cooper the opportunity to travel to the planets, via the worm hole, to follow-up on the erstwhile expedition's progress.

Though eager to pilot a spaceship and satisfy his hunger to travel in space, the trip leaves Murph afraid and angry; knowing she may never see her father again. And when Cooper comes to say goodbye to his daughter, she refuses to see him. While she bars the door, books fall from her bookshelf, further confirming the existence of some sort of poltergeist, though what it actually is becomes clear later in the film.

As the mission to Saturn begins, Cooper is joined by Professor Brand's daughter Brand (Anne Hathaway), Doyle (Wes Bentley), and Romilly (David Gyasi). After their ship breaks Earth's gravitational pull, the crew enters cryogenic freeze for the long voyage. On awakening near Saturn, the crew prepares to enter the worm-hole and when they successfully navigate their way through, they find the black hole and the planets the professor described.

The shot of the Earth from space and the rings of Saturn are lovely and breathtaking. It is particularly humbling to see a massive spaceship reduced to the size of a penny next to Saturn's massive majesty. It is also fascinating that the worm-hole is presented more as a sphere rather than the traditional hole-like, sci-fi conceptions we're accustomed to seeing. Hovering like a ticking clock over these wondrous visuals is the mission's pressing objectives and the imperiled human race back on Earth. Nolan keeps the scientific intricacies of space travel and Einsteinian time-dilation reasonably accessible without drowning the audience in technical jargon.

As Cooper, Brand and the crew visit the prospective planets, they encounter some surprises, some life-threatening setbacks and one of time-dilation's mind-boggling peculiarities (time-dilation dictates that time will slow significantly for those who travel at or near the speed of light while it proceeds normally for observers. If one were to visit a distant star at light speed and return to Earth, the traveler will have hardly aged at all while hundreds or thousands of years may have passed for those on Earth). Because the planets circle a black hole, the more bizarre effects of time-dilation wreak havoc with the crew.

And because of time-dilation, Murph has aged into normally into adulthood (now represented by Jessica Chastain) while her father has more or less remained the age he was when he left Earth. Her transmissions to the Cooper's ship leave him floored when he sees the sobering sight of his aged daughter; who, in relativistic terms, is hardly younger than he.

Back on Earth, Murph has matured into an accomplished scientist who has joined Professor Brand's project and in doing so, she learns (as Cooper and crew discover separately) the mission through the wormhole was a one-way trip, which dashes her hope of ever seeing her father again. The realization has a devastating impact on her and on Cooper alike.

A tragic turn of events on one of the planets threatens the mission, which leads to some life-altering decisions for Cooper and Brand, one of which forces him into the black hole; a phenomenal sequence where travel inside a black hole is beautifully imagined; a trip that ends where one might least expect.

A film like Nolan's only works if the sterile, coldness of space can be countered by a powerful human drama, and it is. The relationship between Cooper and Murph is the dynamic that really drives the film. The desire to see Cooper keep his promise to return to his daughter is powerful, though the unimaginable distance and time between them makes that prospect seem unlikely.

Matthew McConaughey may have given the performance of his career in Interstellar. It's hard to imagine how improbable this role seems when just a decade ago his career was mired in witless, romantic comedies with Kate Hudson. That phase in his career seems as far removed from the present as the black hole is from Earth.

Hoyte Van Hoytema, the cinematographer behind Her and Let the Right One In, has a rich palette from which to work as he captures the dusty brown of a farming town, the cold grays of a icy planet and the lovely, ringed face of Saturn; real and imagined environments he records with an artist's eye.

If the film has a flaw, it might be the later scenes on Earth, which seem to pull us reluctantly away from the unbelievable drama taking place a galaxy away. The scenes of an adult Murph combating her brother to make contact with her father is necessary to the story but it can't match the scenes in space for power or wonder. And of course one could be nit-picky about the science in the film. I doubt anyone in a spacesuit would survive entry into a black hole but why should we be forced to think literally to appreciate the Nolan's imaginative story?

I think Interstellar is a masterpiece; a term I very rarely apply to any film, even great ones. It challenges our intellect and our conceptions of reality while showing us how precious a sight a human face might be when it lies beyond interstellar and intergalactic reaches, and what happens when time dilation allows a young father to visit his elderly daughter on her deathbed. And it asks us to consider the notion that our species may not me meant to occupy this celestial ball forever. Nolan asks us to consider a lot, which is what makes his film a stunning achievement.