"You're in love with a fantasy"

Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris is yet another reminder of how much better a filmmaker Woody Allen is than me, not that I needed any more proof.

Continuing his insane run of a movie per year, Woody Allen crafts another gem as far as I'm concerned. Full disclosure: I recently directed a movie that was greatly inspired by Allen's 1979 film, Manhattan. Romanticism and nostalgia is an underlying theme in the film, especially in the first scene.

Midnight in Paris takes up the theme of nostalgia, like my film Nostalgia (check it out here http://vimeo.com/23241296). Owen Wilson plays a romantic Hollywood screenwriter at a time of great crisis. Tired of hacking away at pedantic screenplays, he has just finished his novel and appears to be searching for some sort of confirmation. On vacation with his fiance, played beautifully by Rachel McAdams, he finds himself transfixed by Paris wanting to just exist in it and breathe in the beauty and artistry. The beginning scene is hilarious as Wilson's character, Gil, pontificates about the beauty of walking the streets of Paris in the rain. His fiance doesn't quite get it, neither do her friends who'd rather spend the nights dancing away at the more touristy of Paris. Gil walks the streets of Paris to find some of the magic he knows exists and winds up transporting back into Paris of the 20's with the likes of F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, and Gertrude Stein (don't worry I had no idea who that was either http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gertrude_Stein).


Midnight in Paris is at the surface a gorgeous film, though how hard is it to make Paris look beautiful right? That's not to diminish the work of Darius Khondji who I think brings some beautiful golden hues to the city lights of Paris and does an admirable job. Digging deeper, past the surface, you can find an assiduous eye to the condition of nostalgia. The issue of looking back can be a fun and exciting distraction, but it leads you to a place discontent. There is an inevitable disconnection with the present that comes with it. Allen recognizes the good and bad parts of our proclivity to look back

It's difficult imagining that, at some point, people will look at the oughts , enthralled with the culture, art, and general "je nais sais quoi". This appears to be Allen's underlying suggestion. Amidst the time traveling magical realism and the zany presence of literary and art figures (Whaddup Dali), there is a man seeking to locate himself within the breadth of artistry and romance. Midnight in Paris examines a man existentially and shows the faults and concerns of a life lived in the past.

In any case, Midnight in Paris resides at the top of the list for my favorite of 2011 obviously. I would check it out if I were you.

And Owen Wilson does a spot on Woody Allen impression.

"To Me, You Are Perfect"

Every once in awhile, a movie comes along and just knocks you off your feet. I'm talking once you finish watching it, you just want to tell the world about it and scream from the roof tops. Love Actually is a beautifully, elegant rumination on one of the most common conditions of life: being in love. Through its effortless performances and genuinely witty storylines, the film weaves together a number of stories that essentially describe how love is and how it should be.

For me at least, the best movies tend to be difficult to synopsize. Love Actually is a lot like that. You can say it's about love, but that tends to cheapen it's precious treatment of the subject. The film's beauty starts in it's wonderful opening, showing embraces of travelers and family members at the arrival gate of Heathrow airport. In short cuts, the film shows with its harsh lighting and crude long lens camera work the beauty that still remains in the smaller moments of love that aren't glamorized. It's at this moment that the film shows it's meaty core of simply wanting to be honest and real. They do an admirable job of just capturing reality, not forcing, which they continue later in the film with its fictional plot.

As the film progresses, we're introduced to the starkly different characters: a prime minister, a fashion consultant, a 10-year old and his grieving step dad, and an aging former pop star. They all are dodge in and out of each other's stories in an effective mosaic of occurrences. Recent films have tried to imitate this sort of vigenette-esque approach to one high-concept like Valentine's Day or He's Just Not that Into You. Love Actually, I'd imagine, is the blueprint from which these films attempted to draw from. But I think what those other films are missing is the substance of simplicity. Love Actually never dawdles from its central message of foolishness, courage, impetuousness, and hope. It doesn't cheapen it's delivery with tawdry storylines and improbable twists.

Through all these stories, the film centers upon one main message: Yes, there is love and as you get older, you learn that it's not what you thought it was. Still, in the end it's worth it, no matter how inconvenient.

I love Love Actually. And although it may be incredibly populist, I don't care. Please, check it out