Enjoying and Producing Music

Crystal Fairy begins at a party in Chile, where a drug-obsessed but otherwise rational American, played by a less-girlish-than-usual Michael Cera, is planning a road trip with some local friends in pursuit of magic-cactus mescaline and a mind-opening experience. He accidentally invites a new-age hippy American, played with uninhibited loony fervor by Gaby Hoffmann, to join them. The escalating clash of those two personalities bewilders their laid-back Chilean hosts and also provides the central element of this well-acted but sometimes tedious story. The film eventually takes an interesting turn as we learn that people can be more than they seem.

In the Q/A following the screening, some of the cast suggested that they prepared for their roles by actually taking mescaline. In humorous contrast, Michael Cera said he prepared by googling mescaline. And oddly, Gaby Hoffmann talked about the Mayan apocalypse as if it was still going on. Perhaps she was still in character. C+.

If the bombastic American Pie was the “Hound Dog” of losing-your-virginity movies, the subdued The First Time is the “Love Me Tender”. The two young leads meet with a long and believably awkward first conversation, and initially seem mismatched. But over the course of a weekend, they find a fragile emotional connection. That gradual warming is the most interesting aspect, and is executed with what seems like the right amount of clumsiness and embarrassment. The level of dialog is generally entertaining, as it falls somewhere in the large gap between how interesting characters should talk and how teenagers actually talk. Unfortunately they’re still teenagers, so that’s the demographic that might enjoy this film. C+

A depressed divorcee mopes around her parents house for a while and then perks up as she develops a somewhat scandalous relationship with a guy who is a bit too young. Hello I Must Be Going presents an impressive mix of insightful writing and refined performances, especially by Melanie Lynskey as her character comes out of her funk, reaches closure with her ex, and ultimately moves on. The female empowerment message in this simple story is right around Lifetime movie level. B-

Fans of a renowned author have filled an auditorium, and they listen as he begins to read from his latest work, which describes how a certain book came to be written, and the story-within-a-story that he tells has its own flashback. That ambitious story telling device is executed with some skill in The Words, a small indie movie that feels bigger than it is due to multiple settings and time periods, and a first rate cast. Though Bradley Cooper and Zoe Saldana shine at times, only Jeremy Irons finds a way to make his character memorable. And it all arrives at the end a bit dog-eared, a few chapters short of the masterpiece it tried to be. B

Standup comedian Mike Birbiglia portrays a slightly fictionalized version of himself in verite effort Sleepwalk With Me. His character struggles with a sleeping disorder, with his relationships, and with life on the road in pursuit of stand-up gigs. There are some laughs and pleasant moments, though not enough. In contrast, Louis C. K. is mixing stand-up and fictionalized-life struggles in his series on cable channel FX with a more inspired subversion and edgier laughs. C+

The hook for Smashed is the fiery performance by Mary Elizabeth Winstead as a school teacher struggling with a drinking problem. This is a modern, less severe take on the grim subject explored so well in the classic “Days of Wine and Roses”, and though it has some incendiary moments it never rises to that level. B

With the mind of a poet trapped in a body made nearly useless by polio, Mark O’Brien fought to live a normal life, and his remarkable true story is told with candor and abundant clinical detail in The Surrogate. Part of that pursuit of a normal life was a quest, in his mid-thirties, to lose his virginity. But with an iron lung, getting really good on the guitar wasn’t exactly an option, hence his arrangement with a sex surrogate. As he moves past that relationship and on to others, the film examines the different forms love can take. Helen Hunt brings warmth to the surrogate character. William H. Macy is a hoot as a catholic priest giving surprisingly good advice. B

Real-life actor/dad Mark Webber shows some promise in his writing/directing debut, The End of Love, the tale of how a young father deals with tragedy. This melancholy effort has some nice moments but ultimately feels too much like a dad’s home movie of his kid. C

Aubrey Plaza is becoming a notable actress who can instinctively express her own brand of impatience or insecurity without uttering a line. Fortunately, Safety Not Guaranteed gives her the lead role she deserves, and gives all the players some fun oddball dialog and a uniquely twisted story. With a winning mixture of boy-next-door charm and out-to-lunch crazy, Mark Duplass plays the wierdo, or maybe the genius, who is recruiting a partner for his time travel project. And Aubrey Plaza’s character, initially a bored member of a team investigating this project, warms up nicely. Some of the secondary story lines aren’t as inspired as the main arc, but overall this is low-budget indie is a nice little joy ride.

After the screening, the Q/A revealed that the film was inspired by an actual ad in a 1997 issue of Backwoods Home Magazine, soliciting a time-travel partner, an ad that gained some internet notoriety. B+

David Duchovny channels Jeff Bridges as a combination goat whisperer / Moses of weed. That WTF concept is not as entertaining as it should have been, but neither he nor the goats are the central characters anyway. The wide-ranging GOATS is a story of a bright teen-age kid who is trying to grow up and looking for guidance, not from a mom addled by new-age nonsense, not from an up-tight dad who is mostly out of the picture, but from the goat man, at least initially. In this coming-of-age yarn, everyone has a bit of growing up to do, and they get there with some quirky fun but without the sort of drama that would have made this more compelling. C+

Parker Posey is a tornado of crazy-sexy-cruel as the new manager hired to shake things up and improve sales at a grocery store chain in Price Check. The improvements are not without collateral damage, especially to her second in command, Eric Mabius, who gets a confidence boost from his new mentor but also takes a hit to his private life. Parker Posey’s performance is dazzling, funny, and uninhibited, and kind of overwhelms the more subtle elements in the film, like lessons about honesty and ambition. And unfortunately the ending does not have the same punch as the rest of the movie.

Note from Q/A following the screening: When a woman acts like a man it’s not pretty. B-

As the largely improvised My Sister’s Sister unfurls a nicely paced sequence of plot surprises, perhaps the biggest revelation is filmmaker/actor Mark Duplass as a flawed but likable romantic lead. Not at all surprising is the easy on-screen charm of Emily Blunt as his counterpart, first as a friend and then perhaps as more. The third puzzle piece is Rosemarie DeWitt as her slightly twisted sister. Writer/director Lynn Shelton apparently used a process similar to the Duplass brothers’ projects, where the movie is really defined in the editing room, by fishing the best movie out of a sea of multiple improvised takes. From that process, the resulting story here explores themes of honesty and family with a pleasant mix of drama and comedy. B

Rashida Jones and Andy Samberg are known mainly for their TV work, but that’s likely to change with the release of Celeste and Jesse Forever, where they both show new range. This is especially true of Rashida Jones, as she not only sustains our interest throughout, but cowrote the screenplay for this inventive romantic comedy. Easy and sometimes hilarious interplay between the divorcing lead characters keeps us engaged, until things get tricky and the movie begins to explore its central theme of whether a man and woman can be just friends. In this regard the movie is a sort of reverse “When Harry Met Sally”.

In the Q/A folllowing the screening, Andy Samberg deflected praise for his newly-found dramatic acting chops by musing that “Daniel Day Lewis would have been the illest Jesse ever. Or Celeste.”
B+

In a year that saw the passing of Steve Jobs, a lot of consideration has been given to the relationship between humans and the technology they have invented to improve their lives. The oddly delightful Robot and Frank examines that relationship, along with the very nature of human memory. You have to suspend disbelief a bit to accept the corny Robot that is brought in to care for the aging Frank, but it seems to be this movie’s deliberate way of staying out of the science fiction mainstream and making this buddy movie more about the humanity than the robotity. Frank Langella is enjoyable as a crotchety old softy, a character we’ve seen before, but not with such a wild combination of issues, and not with such a skillful and nuanced performance. B

After delivering the audience-award-winning “happythankyoumoreplease” at Sundance 2010, writer/director/actor Josh Radnor evidently went away to Woody Allen college, and came back with the literate, classically-influenced Liberal Arts. With subtle elements of Annie Hall and Manhattan, this tale of a guidance counselor revisiting his alma mater reflects wisely on what it means to teach, to be taught, and to grow up, across multiple generations, and suggests that in some ways it’s all downhill after college. And it does so with knowing reference to the variety of poetry, music, and literature that inform the process. Sundance 2011 standout Elizabeth Olsen continues to impress, here with a young Diane Keaton brand of precocious daffiness. A

I like to believe that the glacial pacing and indulgent editing affectations of Kid Thing are an artistic choice intended at subversive mischief, not a miscalculation of how aweseome it looks on screen, for example, to show a guy milking a goat, endlessly. It’s a shame that sort of thing was such a frequent distraction, because this uneven film had some genuinely original ideas, some twisted humor, and a young actress who was clearly capable of delivering more than the minmal script allowed. As it explored the impact of parental guidance by portraying a child without it, this awkwardly packaged fable about morality forgot to deliver a moral. C-

The flawed world-view that the Federal Reserve held under Greenspan is one of many dimensions of the recent financial crisis examined in documentary film The Flaw. The sequence of events that culminated in market upheaval in late 2008 and lingering recession has been the subject of many books, a parade of talking heads on CNBC, and well-meaning but ineffective legislation. We now have this fresh and somewhat broader perspective. Using interviews with financial experts and a few ordinary homeowners and investors who were affected in various ways by the financial crisis, along with some jolly animation, this film largely succeeds in making economics (the dismal science) more entertaining than it deserves to be, while providing actual data to make its case.

If a documentary film accepted to Sundance didn’t take a somewhat liberal tone, California would slide into the ocean. This film does try to cover several vantage points, so it may cause a few tremors. But our beaches are safe, because the film ultimately argues that the problem is capitalism itself; specifically what it has become in the last 30 years with the shift in the distribution of wealth toward a smaller number of wealthier asset holders.

In the Q/A following the screening, director David Sington revealed that he is a conservative who changed his opinion of the crisis during the filming. B.

The story of a policeman dealing with corruption has been told before, but The Son of No One one has an original narrative device: We see the central character, Channing Tatum’s New York cop, as an adult, and then as a child in flashbacks, and the film gradually reveals the lasting impact of the childhood events. But the story told through that device feels unresolved, and somehow fails to reach the high level of excitement we expect.

In the Q/A after the screening, the film’s editor discussed an alternative ending with a completely different meaning, which suggested that some capricious choices may have been made in the narrative. C

As an apparently happy family hosts another apparently happy family in their guest house for the winter, we gradually learn that serious problems lie beneath the surface in Norwegian import (with English subtitles) Happy Happy. With comedic elements and bittersweet emotional turns, this Sundance favorite (World Cinema Jury Prize, Dramatic) entertains by presenting some adult themes with a light tone, and by revealing small pleasant surprises one after another, like chocolate Easter eggs in the Norway snow. B

In Another Happy Day, a gathering for a wedding is the excuse for family members to reunite and catch up, and argue. This family suffers a variety of physical and behavioral disorders, and as you might imagine it’s not really a “happy” day. The central character is played at full throttle by the great Ellen Barkin, who does a lot of shouting and weeping. She’s really good at it, but it all eventually wears thin.

In the Q/A following the screening, 25-year-old writer/director Sam Levinson was endearingly humble, struggling to hold it together while facing the audience of 1300 in the Eccles theater at the world premier. But the evidence was on the screen that he somehow managed to write a script that pulls together a complex story full of authentic family dynamics, and then elicited compelling performances from a cast that included Hollywood pros two or three times his age. C+

Like the unfortunate professor in the Coen brothers’ “A Serious Man”,  Toby Maguire’s quirky but otherwise unremarkable suburban professional in dark comedy The Details has some bad luck, compounded by some bad decisions. The poor guy goes through a tragicomic sequence of screwing up, and then getting penalized after trying to make amends. There is plenty of darkness, but the comedy writing isn’t as sharp as that of the Coens. Most interesting is a completely uninhibited comic performance by Laura Linney as a crazy cat lady neighbor. C+

In Sound of My Voice, emergent Sundance star Brit Marling (who also cowrote) portrays a charismatic visitor claiming to be from the near future, who appears to be forming a cult. We see events unfold through the skeptical eyes of two journalists who infiltrate. This is a nicely crafted suspense story with some appropriately creepy aspects, and a thought-provoking payoff.

In the Q/A following the screening, the filmmakers indicated that the web postings of purported time traveler John Titor were a partial inspiration. B

A mapmaker finds more than he is looking for in Armenia. An unorthodox road trip romance, HERE has lots of exotic local color. The story’s presentation is plagued a bit by a fuzzy reach for cosmic grandeur. And the cinematography and framing is first rate, but it could have been more enjoyable if the editing moved things along. C-

Little Birds is set vividly in two carefully chosen locales: the decaying Salton Sea coast, and a seedy part of Los Angeles. This well-executed road movie / coming-of-age movie / buddy movie follows two teenage girls, one adventurous and the other careful, as they grow bored by their surroundings, and then cross paths with some hoodlum boys from LA. The step-by-step increase in risky behavior by teenagers seems authentic here. The unique chemistry and tension between the two leads, and a persuasive performance by (yet another standout Sundance British import) Juno Temple, make this rough ride ultimately rewarding. B+

If “rock” music emphasizes feeling rather than thinking, its proudly-retarded step-child “punk” specifically emphasizes feeling angry. And it works best if you don’t parse the lyrics but just experience the emotion. This is the only way to enjoy I Melt With You. If you ignore the implausible aspects of the story, you can find entertainment in certain intriguing elements, including a killer sound track, some creatively decadent man-talk, and a coked-up Jeremy Piven character. It’s illuminating to note that this over-long movie was directed by the guy who directed Pearl Jam’s Jeremy video, because this unfolds in some respects more like a 125 minute music video – the arty kind with dialog – than a credible movie narrative. C-

Rarely has the conflict between religious faith and human reason been examined so frankly on screen as in writer/director Matthew Chapman’s The Ledge. Of course the topic has been covered in essay and non-fiction form recently by Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins. But seeing it on screen brings a new perspective, putting a guy on a ledge and flashing back to help us figure out why he is apparently ready to jump. The cast turns in strong performances all around (film industry: More Liv Tyler, please), but it’s the smart dialog that makes this thriller entertaining in spite of some strained plausibility. B+

Last year’s favorite Sundance love story was the time-warped Blue Valentine; this year’s update is the more linear but equally beautiful Like Crazy. While the lovers in Blue Valentine had to overcome themselves, with Like Crazy, they battle circumstance. The many small details, such as gifts and text messages,  are finely crafted here. The piano-driven score is heavy on the emotional manipulation, but it works. And last year’s Sundance breakout star Jennifer Lawrence is very effective in a small role, but, as the formula dictates, much of the burden is on the lead actress. Like Sundance ’09’s An Education allowed US audiences to discover Carrey Mulligan, this year’s find is Felicity Jones. A

In My Idiot Brother, the subject is a shaggy man who navigates his world with a dog-like innocence, and who will metaphorically drink out of your toilet or hump your leg whenever he wants to. He is the simple tail-wagging, well-intentioned brother to some siblings with complicated lives, and it’s a family dynamic with plenty of comedic potential, well executed. Paul Rudd is always likable and funny, and in this one he fetches and retrieves. Plus, Rashida Jones and Zooey Deschanel make out, so hell yeah.

In the Q/A following the screening, one of the obvious questions was what sort of, uh, research Paul Rudd conducted for his stoner role. His answer: surprisingly little. (A more insightful audience question was about any intended parallel between Paul Rudd’s random injection of blunt honesty into his family discussions, and the WikiLeaks unleashing of embarrassing truths into the public discourse. But no.) A

The promise of surviving your own death is a strong enticement to suspend reason in favor of faith, and we know some people latch on to that idea and go overboard. So, Higher Ground examines the effects of such faith on the life of an otherwise intelligent central character, played with great skill by Vera Farmiga, who also directed. This movie resisted what must have been a temptation to portray the faithful as one dimensional or plain evil. Instead, it showed how supportive and familial the flock can be, though only if all tow the line, especially the women folk. The central character struggles to resolve her own observations and skepticism against the party line, and it’s fascinating to watch. This finely crafted story is enhanced by some authentic folkish church music, is beautifully acted, and is a promising directorial debut. B+

Lost in Translation took Bill Murray’s character far from home to Tokyo, and took him on an emotional journey within his business trip. Likewise, Cedar Rapids takes naive unspoiled Ed Helms’ insurance salesman to a business convention in the seemingly less exotic Iowa town, but his emotional journey is even more transforming, and also hilarious.

Ed Helms brings a credible innocence to his role, and we enjoy the tension as the strong ensemble surrounding him pulls him gradually toward the mayhem. Ann Heche is always fun to watch and she’s a treat here, but it’s John C. Reilly’s character that steals every scene and provides a hilarious thesaurus of colorfully disgusting names for body parts and functions. B+

Low key mind bender Another Earth explores the idea of a mirror Earth suddenly appearing in the sky. That would be kind of a big deal, like The Day the Earth Stood Still. But instead of proposing a grand change of planetary behavior, this modest thought experiment examines a few specific troubled lives, and how such an event might simply provide another option to the residents of this earth. It’s not quite science fiction, and it’s also something more. As Spock once said: Fascinating. Lead actress Brit Marling, who also co-wrote the screenplay, is making an auspicious debut at this Sundance, with a compelling acting/cowriting contribution to two movies (see Sound of My Voice below). Sometimes “what if” is more vivid than “what is”. B+

Employing frequent cuts between scenes from a relationship’s hopeful past and scenes from its hopeless present, Blue Valentine details the gradual squandering of potential, where the two principals find themselves tied together in spite of not being quite right for each other. Michelle Williams brings both radiance and restless disappointment to her character, and undeniable chemistry with Ryan Gosling, who’s character both dazzles and infuriates.

In the Q/A following the screening, writer/director Derek Cianfrance said the script had been in the works since about 1998, and described an extraordinary effort by the two leads to prepare for their roles. He also considered the music very carefully, choosing Grizzly Bear for the soundtrack, and having Ryan Gosling sing in a key scene, but deliberately avoiding any heavy-handed use of music to manipulate emotions.

The story of a disintegrating marriage sounds like a bummer, but with first-rate performances, some thoughtful music, and some inspired direction that allows scenes to linger, this film is beautifully heartbreaking, and baby sometimes love just ain’t enough. B+

The title of The Romantics refers to the name a group of 7 college friends gave themselves, and also to the sort of poetry they studied. A few years after graduating, they reunite for the wedding of friends #1 and #2. But friend #3, who is best friends with #1, used to date #2, a lot. So, that triangle is the heart of this uneven but generally entertaining ensemble comedy.

As an indication of how far we have come, the characters in this film would have been born around the time “The Big Chill”, the mother of all college-friends-reuniting films, was released. Since comparisons are likely, this one has to come up way short, if only because the music isn’t used nearly as effectively, the drug-addled antics aren’t as fun, and the dialog doesn’t ring as true. B-

In the mid 1990’s, I may have fantasized that the beautiful Amber Waves from “Boogie Nights” and the librarian-hot Sydney Ellen Wade from “The American President” somehow crossed paths and started making out. Well, I have now seen Julianne Moore and Annette Bening deliver the goods. They are the two lesbian moms heading a very modern family in The Kids Are All Right, a family so modern one of the kids is named “Laser”. Laser and his half-sister each came from one of the moms and are linked by a certain anonymous donation. When one kid turns 18 and they track down the donor/biodad (played with enthusiastic charm/sleeze by an underrated Mark Ruffalo), we learn what an awesome guy he is, until he starts acting on his own fantasies. His multi-faceted impact on the family generates a lot of laughs, and a lot of drama, in a very entertaining package. A

The movie Twelve takes its title from a made-up drug that is sort of a combination of ecstasy and crack, as if either by itself was not enough. The story in this movie struck me as also being likewise synthetic, with the drug linking the affluent uptown culture with the thug culture in an unlikely and incompatible mix. It doesn’t help that conventional exposition is suppressed in favor of heavy-handed narration. So it’s difficult to enjoy this grim tale of rich NYC kids with preoccupied, ineffective parents and misguided ambition, as they begin the process of wasting their lives. C-

The career of ’70’s girl-band the Runaways was as raw as a pick scratch and as fleeting as a line of coke. The biopic The Runaways captures that, turned up to 11. The two female leads – Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning – are wild and fearless as Joan Jett and Cherie Currie, and Michael Shannon is brilliant as decadent, controversial svengali Kim Fowley.

In the Q/A that followed the screening, writer/director Floria Sigismondi revealed that the role of lead guitarist Lita Ford had to be downplayed because appropriate rights could not be obtained. And she said she cast Kristen Stewart based on her performance in a small role in Into The Wild, before the whole Twilight thing.  A

Skateland is a slice-of-life tale of a young guy who works at a Texas roller skating arena in the mid 1980’s, partying with friends, struggling with family, and trying to figure out what he will do with his life. The film does a great job of capturing the music, dress, and keg-party atmosphere of that era. But the story didn’t compel me to care enough about the characters. C+

Fans of popular CBS TV series “How I Met Your Mom” will recognize Josh Radnor as Ted. His feature film writing/directing debut, with the quirky title happythankyoumoreplease, is perhaps more impressive than Zach Braf’s similar debut Sundance 2004 (Garden State). This film is a romantic tale of an aspiring writer and the ebb and flow of emotion in his relationships and those of his small circle of friends. Everything about this works, especially some heart-grabbing scenes, poignant dialog, and terrific acting performances all around. B+

A comedy about suicide bombers. You probably could not believe that summary, and, as I watched the film. I could not believe what I was seeing and hearing, and how good it was. I also could not understand what I was hearing, to some extent. That’s due to some thick British accents and slang. But Four Lions is so amazing and funny that the 80% of it I understood is plenty, and I have more reason to see it again. (The first time we saw Monty Python in the 1970’s, I think the accents and jargon threw us all a similar learning curve, but we got over it.) The script was brilliant, and reminiscent of last year’s Sundance standout “In The Loop” with the rapid fire comedic lines. This one had better physical comedy, and overall was perhaps even more hysterical. And, amid the comedy, it’s about people who blow themselves up as part of their particular brand of religious nonsense, so it actually has a profound moral message. It makes fun of terrorists, it makes fun of people who are trying to guarantee our security, and it would make fun of your mom if it had her number. This fearless and original movie is sure to offend the usual humorless offendees. A

For anyone like me who tries to balance skiing and movie watching during the Sundance Film Festival, the movie Frozen is where the two worlds collide. Set in a fictitious small New England ski area (but shot just down the road at Utah’s Snowbasin Resort), this film depicts a ski trip gone horribly wrong when a chairlift stops and the three passengers are stranded.

Every frequent skier has experienced a stall on the chairlift. Usually it’s 1-3 minutes because that once-a-year skier from Alabama got on sideways or got off upside down, or some similar loading/unloading mishap. On rare occasions, the stall is longer, due to a mechanical problem, and after 15 minutes or so they usually get it resolved. But even the 3-minute stall can seem like forever, and one’s mind can begin to wander and play out worst-case scenarios. So this movie did a respectable job of taking that speculation and turning into a nightmare. So, although you have to suspend disbelief (like you do with all horror movies), this film works hard to construct a credible scenario that causes the skiers to be stranded for a very long time. And, however sick your imagination may be, what happens in this movie is worse than you think.

In the Q/A following the screening, writer/director Adam Green described the challenges of the shoot. There was no CGI or green-screen; the three actors were filmed on an actual chair, 50 feet above the snow. Why 50 feet? It had to be low enough so that the skiers could at least consider jumping without certain death, but high enough so that they could be assured of injury. To film the shots, they needed a crane, but the biggest crane they could find didn’t quite reach. They had to build a platform out of snow, and put a trailer on top of that, and put the crane on top of the trailer.

This is an enjoyable, scary ski movie. But I will always need to go down the mountain fast, and will therefore always need to go up the mountain, and therefore I will keep riding chairlifts. B+

An weary midwestern couple with a going-through-the-motions marriage finds a spark in the touching Welcome To The Rileys, which examines the nature of parenthood, responsibility, and growing up. The film has a grim New Orleans realism, enhanced with some great performances by all three leads. In the post-screeing Q/A, the director indicated that he cast Kristen Stewart based on her small role in Into the Wild. This was the second director say that at this year’s Sundance (see The Runaways). And the writer said that the screenplay was motivated by the frequent failure of the foster care system and the consequent number of the teen-age runaways. B+

A melancholy examination of post-traumatic stress disorder, too common among Iraq vets, The Dry Land treats its subject with respect and sets its characters among the stark American southwest to make the humanity stand out. Like with the Sundance 2009 depresser “Helen”, I felt educated about the syndrome and its effects on family and friends, not really entertained. But this film was somehow more successful. B

Big emotions in a small Canadian town are on display in Grown Up Movie Star. The focus is on the love-hate relationship between a confused father, who has been abandoned by his stardom-seeking wife, and his two daughters. One daughter is at that running-off-the-rails age, and her younger sister is still normal but is taking notes. There are some really good elements in this movie, and some powerful emotions are portrayed well, but some over-the-top scenes and unlikely dialog detract a bit. B-

From Hamburg on, the history of the Beatles has been pretty well covered in film. The biopic Nowhere Boy reaches further back, focusing on the teenage John Lennon and his relationship with his mother and his aunt, the influences that led John to form a band, and his meeting with Paul and the forming of the Quarrymen. It begins with John already living with Aunt Mimi and George, and ends just as the band is about to head for Hamburg.

The sound track includes some gems including one from Screaming Jay Hawkins, which sheds a lot of light on John’s later vocal style, for example on “Twist and Shout”. But not everyone will like the movie if they expect to see any Beatles performances or even hear any Beatles songs.

In the Q/A following the screening, director Sam Taylor Wood said she got a bit of help from Yoko Ono about the relationship between John and Aunt Mimi, and from Paul about the early compositions. And Aaron Johnson, who played John said much of his research for the role came from a John Lennon interview in Rolling Stone.

The film does a good job of capturing John’s verbal style and wit, his unconventional family, and the passion for music that would later make history. It seems to get the important details right as well as some of the small ones (e. g. John’s first guitar; the 17 shillings and six pence fee for the recording of “In Spite of All the Danger”). The trickiest scene is the one that explains why John is with is aunt instead of his mother; there’s probably no fully satisfactory way to handle that. Most importantly, this film deeply respects its subject matter, and helps explain the complexity behind the boy who eventually wrote both “In My Life” and “I Am the Walrus” . B+

Boy (John C. Riley) loses girl (Catherine Keener), then boy meets new girl (Marisa Tomei); so far so good, we still have a recognizable story. Then, boy meets new girl’s son (Jonah Hill); now the going gets weird, and the Duplass brothers’ Cyrus takes a nicely executed left turn off the Hollywood romantic comedy main road, skids across the sidewalk, and smashes into an Oedipal crazy farm.

The process used by the Duplass brothers, as they described in the Q/A following the screening, encourages a lot of improvised dialog, and then a lot of editing to find the good film in the many hours of footage. This cast of indy-film pros clearly delivered some first-rate performances, and the editor found an enjoyable, original story. A

After wowing Sundance audiences in previous years with “Brick” and “(500) Days of Summer”, Joseph Gordon-Levitt is doing it again, stealing every scene as an offensive, charismatic metalhead in this year’s Hesher. It’s an unconventional film about a family coping with loss, and the extraordinary way they ultimately deal with it. It’s dissonant, painful and surprisingly sweet, like a Hallmark Mothers Day card tattooed on your face by Motorhead. It’s not clear whether this is a masterpiece that some will hate, or a failure that some will love. But either way it’s a fun ride, and it also gets to the heart of what heavy metal music means. But, like the most extreme metal, it might need to be watered down a bit in order to find a mainstream audience. B