115. Perfect Day &...

Lyrics

Just a perfect day
drink Sangria in the park
And then later
when it gets dark, we go home

Just a perfect day
feed animals in the zoo
Then later
a movie, too, and then home

Oh, it's such a perfect day
I'm glad I spend it with you
Oh, such a perfect day
You just keep me hanging on
You just keep me hanging on

Just a perfect day
problems all left alone
Weekenders on our own
it's such fun

Just a perfect day
you made me forget myself
I thought I was
someone else, someone good

Oh, it's such a perfect day
I'm glad I spent it with you
Oh, such a perfect day
You just keep me hanging on
You just keep me hanging on

You're going to reap just what you sow
You're going to reap just what you sow
You're going to reap just what you sow

You're going to reap just what you sow

Radio 2's listeners criminally under-appreciate Lou Reed. Perfect Day and Walk on the Wild Side are his only songs on the list, and there is nothing by Velvet Underground either. I also suspect people who call themselves 'true Lou Reed fans' would scoff at the notion that Perfect Day is the man's best song. It's certainly isn't the song that can define his place in, and importance for, music history. Heroin would probably be a better example of that. I can understand why that song is not in the top 2000. It's one of the most disturbing songs ever. I think there are few works of art that depict the despair of an addict in a more harrowing way. It's last two minutes are unlike anything I've heard. On the other hand, there is no logical reason why Radio 2's listeners don't go for Pale Blue Eyes, maybe the most beautiful, sweetest, romantic song ever made. I've heard that song for the first time in a film that I consider nearly equally romantic. It's the one film I think of when I think of Lou Reed. 

The Movie: Adventureland (Greg Mottola, 2009)

I've banged the drum often for this film, and I'll continue to do so in the future. Having now seen it three times, I think it's one of the best films of the 21st century, and one of the most romantic movies I've seen. 

The greatest strength of Adventureland is that it's not quite a coming-of-age film. James (Jesse Eisenberg) and Em (Kristen Stewart) have already come of age. They are confident, intelligent recent graduates who know their way around the opposite gender. They are attracted to each other, from very early on in the film, but it's not a lack of life experience that keeps them from starting something. Similarly, once the happy ending does arrive, they have not become better people, nor have they learned anything groundbreaking about life and love they did not know before. Furthermore, their relationship is not delayed because of external factors. There is nothing in the outer world keeping Em and James from being together. Yes, has Em has an affair with the married maintenance guy Mike (Ryan Reynolds), but the film makes explicitly clear that Em can stop that affair whenever she wants without Mike protesting. It also makes clear that Em is very much aware this affair has no future.

I remember liking the film quite a lot while watching it for the first time, but I was really sold on it the first time we hear Pale Blue Eyes. By that point in the film James and Em have spend a lot of time together, and it is clear that they are starting to like each other a lot. James has even made Em a mix tape which they listen to in a car, while driving home from a bar they've been to. Since Adventureland Eisenberg and Stewart have become very respected, beloved actors, but I am willing to argue they have never acted better than in this single scene. They are sitting together in the car, silently working through their feelings, trying to think of something to say. They yearn for each other, but fear what may happen if they express it. They know they have a lot of fun with each other, they both know they are attracted to each other, but are not completely sure about each other's feelings, nor about their own really.

That scene encapsulates the whole movie. One of film critic Roger Ebert's repeated sayings was that it's more romantic to wonder whether you are going to be kissed, than to actually be kissed. To that I'd add that it's more frustrating to not be sure whether you should kiss the other person, than to have no one to kiss in sight. Throughout Adventureland James and Em find themselves in both of these positions, often at the same time. They are fully aware that every action they take, every word they say, may have consequences, perhaps not just for their relationship, but for their life as a whole. Few movies have represented so wonderfully, this glorious frustrating confusion of falling in love and not exactly knowing what to do about it. Even fewer have evoked how fun this is. That makes it very clear what is at stake for James and Em. The risk of losing each other's friendship is far bigger than the reward of a relationship. James and Em will definitely have a very good life if the situation stays as it is. If the situation changes, by them entering a relationship, it could get substantially better, but that's only a possibility. If the situation changes by them losing each other, their life would be worse. This is a very analytical, unromantic analysis of romance, but it is the best way to explain what makes this film so much more romantic than your average Hollywood rom-com. There the implicit suggestion often is that the lovers should become a couple, because, hey, what do they have to lose. The fact that James and Em have much to lose, and much to win, makes us care far more about the characters and their relationship. It also makes them far more interesting, as they are constantly forced to negotiate and think about their strong feelings. Apart from all this, it is simply more realistic.      

Greg Mottola, who is the writer-director deserves a lot of credit for all this. Especially his dialogue is often pitch perfect. James and Em's conversations often evade the central point, but through these evasions the point becomes very clear. Mottola understands that these evasions are not just a self-defense mechanism, but also a way for allowing the other person to be more comfortable. They are like a tacit, unspoken agreement to maintain the status quo, while allowing one another to poke around and see whether to change the status quo, and if so, how. And again, Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart deserve a lot of credit for their performances. Especially Eisenberg manages to have James maintain a genuinely relaxed attitude around Em, while simultaneously consciously acting out such an attitude in front of Em. It's a very remarkable performance. Stewart and Eisenberg are helped by the way Mottola shoots them. We very often see a large part of their body in the frame, allowing us to see the hesitant movements of their arms and legs.

I really like the cinematography of this film in general. Many scenes are shot as if they are a hazy. beautiful memory of a special time. This sounds pretentious, but to some extent it's as if the film is shot by the current James and Em, trying to evoke their feelings at that time through the cinematography. Everything looks slightly prettier, slightly more joyous than it is. This approach sometimes creates a rather disorienting effect, has set his film in the context of a financial crisis. While that is definitely not the main subject of the film, it's definitely not ignored. In fact, financial problems are the reason why most of the characters we meet in Adventureland work there. And James' parents very clearly struggle to make ends meet. Now, you can ignore what I am about to say, as I am going to wildly overpraise the film. But seeing it now, it reminded me to some extent of films like Five Easy Pieces and Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore. It's not so much that it takes the problems of its working class characters seriously, and that it has a lot of empathy for them, it's that it takes the working class itself seriously. It believes that these people have interesting lives worth exploring, and they are interesting, articulate people themselves who have more ideas and goals in life than just getting rich and escaping their class. As I've said often here I don't believe that movies now are worse of than they used to be, or such crap, but I can't deny that this is indeed sorely lacking in modern Hollywood.

I was going to say that the film has a lot empathy for every character, and that it doesn't create dumb stereotypes. That's not really true. The only false note in the film is Em's evil stepmother. Apart from the very stereotypical conception of her, the evil stepmother trope should be hidden away in the 21st century. It rings even more false here, where the rest of the characters are so original and incredibly well developed. Take Lisa P for example, brilliantly introduced through The Rolling Stones' Tops, and equally well performed by Margarita Levieva. At first it seems like she's the park slut, who will sleep with everyone. Turns out she is Catholic and a virgin. She is not in that many scenes, but it is enough to create an incredibly interesting, conflicted character, who really wants to have sex, is aware that she is desirable, but is too hindered by her faith to do anything about it. You could really make a whole movie about her. 

You could also make another movie about James and Em. Mottola could absolutely give these characters the Before Sunrise/Sunset treatment. I like Linklater, especially Boyhood, Bernie and Slacker, but to me Adventureland feels like Mottola in one try made the movie Linklater has been trying his whole career to make. With Adventureland and Superbad, Mottola has also made by far the two best Judd Apatow-related movies. I hope he gets to make more movies, and more movies like those two. For me, these movies put him among the greatest contemporary directors.

114. Belfast Child &...

Lyrics

When my love said to me
Meet me down by the gallow tree
For its sad news I bring
About this old town and all that it's suffering
Some say troubles are bound
Someday soon there gonna pull the old town down
One day we'll return here
When the Belfast child sings again

Brother sister where are you now
I don't look for you right through the crowd
All my life here I've spent
With my faith in god our church and the government
Some say troubles are bound
Someday soon there gonna pull the old town down
One day we'll return here
When the Belfast child sings again
When the Belfast child sings again

So come back Billy won't you come on home
Come back Mary you've been away so long
The streets are empty and your momma's gone
The girls are crying it's been oh so long
And your fathers calling come on home
Oh wont you come on home come on home

Oh come back people you've been gone awhile
And the war is raging on the emerald isle
There's flesh and blood there there's flesh and blood
All the girls are crying but all's not lost
Well the streets are empty the streets are cold
Oh wont you come on home come on home
The streets are empty

But life goes on

One day we'll return here
When the Belfast child sings again
When the Belfast child sings again

I had never heard of this song before knowing Radio 2's top 2000, and I have never heard it outside the context of this list. War-themed songs seem to really attract Radio 2's voters, because I cannot imagine any different context in which this song is more popular than Don't You Forget About Me. Nevertheless this song is quite good and allowed me to link it to a better film than The Breakfast Club. I think that film is OK, but is certainly not some sort of classic in its genre. I will write about it later on, as Don't You Forget About Me does (of course) feature on Radio 2's list. 

The Movie: In the Name of the Father (Jim Sheridan, 1993)

As you see I haven't published on this blog since august. I was doing an internship, while at the same time writing from home for a financial website. I did not have much time for this blog. I hope that will not be the case in my next job, as I really enjoy this. In any case, after my internship (about which I will write some day) ended I discovered Hamilton, Lin Manuel Miranda's brilliant hip-hop musical about the life of founding father Alexander Hamilton. I obviously haven't been able to see the stage play, but the songs were enough to convince me that this is one of the best things ever created, in any medium. Most historical fiction, including In the Name of the Father, really cannot hold a candle to Miranda's play. Having said that, this film is quite good, especially during its first half. Besides no film with Pete Postlethwaite and Daniel Day-Lewis can be any less than enjoyable. 

During its first hour In the Name of the Father is exceptional. It shows exactly how and why Gerry Conlon (Day-Lewis) could be indicted for a bombing he did not commit. Even more importantly, it shows how Gerry is helpless to do anything about it. He is a cog in the machine who needs to be indicted, so the British police can save its face. The screenplay and Sheridan's direction is relentless. It shows with every progressing scene how Gerry is more and more being stripped of his agency, and is helpless to do anything about it.. It is unflinching in showing how the abuse heaped on him by the British police, and legal system, led to his indictment, and the indictment of 10 others, including Gerry's father Giuseppe (Postlethwaite).   

Once in prison, the film becomes a character study that rather wonderfully portrays the complicated relationship between Gerry and Giuseppe. They love, but don't really understand, each other. The dialogue makes very well clear what the problems between them are, but Sheridan achieves way more by just putting Postlethwaite and Day-Lewis in the same frame and focusing on their anguished faces, often in long takes. Of course as the film progresses Gerry and Giusuppe grow closer together and create a stronger bond, but to the film's great credit, it does not turn their relationship into a simple-minded feel-good story. In their final scene together, Giuseppe reveals that he doesn't believe Gerry can take care for his mother after he dies. 

Unfortunately in other aspects, the film does make us of unfortunate cliches about redemption. I read the film was criticized for including the completely fictional Joe, who in the film confesses to the bombing Gerry is accused for. I do not really mind this, except for the fact that Joe is used rather badly. The film needs Joe to show that Gerry becomes a better man in prison. Gerry, before entering prison was a petty thief from Belfast. His father sent him to London to have a better life, only he ended up living in a hippie community, and then us a a bum on the streets. Through the vile Joe, Sheridan shows us that Gerry in prison becomes a more cultured, loving person, someone we should really care for. 

This portrayal of Gerry and Joe is unfortunate for two reasons. First of all, Joe is actually a quite interestingly conceived character who could have been used to explore the conflict between Brittain and Ireland in a more interesting, layered way. Sheridan completely scrambles that opportunity. More importantly, the movie really should not go to great lengths to show that Gerry becomes a good person who we should care for. It is irrelevant. We should care for him because he is an innocent person thrown in jail, because evidence against him was fabricated. That should be enough to make us root for Gerry's release from prison. That would still make the final 10 minutes of the film, the trial where Gerry is acquitted, incredibly powerful. For that Emma Thompson deserves a lot of credit too. She is only in the film for a short time, but her performance as the passionate lawyer Gareth Peirce is very good. She got an Oscar nomination, meaning that at the 1994 Oscars two actresses were nominated for both a leading and a supporting role. Emma Thompson for respectively The Remains of the Day and this film. And Holly Hunter for The Piano and The Firm. I have now discussed three f those films on this blog. While I liked this film a lot, I think The Piano and The Remains of the Day are way better, richer films.