Married Life, Paranoid Park, and Snow Angels: three independently produced American films, all being released this weekend by indie arms of major corporations, and three films that, according to Anthony Kaufman, are surprisingly serious about the “notion that we must come to terms with our complicity in other people’s pain, as well as our own.”
In this piece at Filmcatcher, Kaufman wonders what prompted filmmakers Ira Sachs, Gus Van Sant and David Gordon Green to tackle similar themes in very different ways. “Could it be some long-gestating post-9/11 reflection, or a reaction to the Iraq war and its horrendous collateral damages, from Abu Ghraib and Haditha? Or is it a newfound understanding of globalization, that we are all interconnected and responsible for each other?”
I haven’t seen Snow Angels. I saw Married Life months ago, but I really didn’t care for it and don’t think I could consider it seriously. But Paranoid Park is a really interesting film, one I wish I had time to write more about, but unfortunately haven’t been able to really cover in the madness of True/False and SXSW. It’s definitely a film about the psychology of Getting Away With It, and I can see how it would be tempting to graft political parallels on to that, in that it essentially mines horror from a criminal’s self-interested refusal to take personal responsibility. Still, even if the filmmakers were somehow taping into a zeitgeist, these films are all festival holdovers from 2007, and I’m not sure their simultaneous says anything other than that they’re neither likely Oscar contenders nor summer blockbusters. I’m personally skeptical that three corporate entities would suddenly come to a “newfound understanding” of their complicity in globalization and try to ameliorate their guilt by releasing three adult dramas on the same day.
Speaking of Snow Angels, indieWIRE is sponsoring an Apple Store event tonight in New York, with Angels director Green and co-star Olivia Thirlby (yes, the girl who said “honest to blog” in Juno). More info here.
One of the most frustrating things in the world is the length it sometimes takes for a movie to go from its Sundance premiere to its theatrical release. For example, Snow Angels, the latest from acclaimed filmmaker David Gordon Green (All the Real Girls), screened at the 2007 festival and will not come out in theaters until 15 months later, on March 7, 2008. At least we now have this trailer to feast our eyes on, and while it isn’t the adaptation of Confederacy of Dunces starring Will Ferrell we all had hoped for next from Green, it is nonetheless a great leap in the direction of mainstream appeal. Never mind the film’s stars — Green has worked with popular actors before. Notice instead how much this trailer is cut to make the film resemble every other tragedy-laced, character-driven drama.
Not that this is a bad thing. I’m all for Green becoming popular, and successful (even if it means making a so-far awful-looking stoner comedy from producer Judd Apatow, which, written by Superbad’s Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, has to end up being hilarious). I just really hope he remains the David Gordon Green I’ve been excited about for the past five years (I got a late introduction), the guy who wows me with stunning cinematography and stunning dialogue, each respectively shot or written blatantly enough to be noticeably brilliant yet modestly enough to feel completely natural. Unfortunately, I can’t yet tell you if Snow Angels is the work of an auteur or if Green is slowly making his way to more mainstream waters. If I had gone to Sundance last year, or if the film had been available anytime in the twelve months since, I would have been first in line to see it. Oh well, I’ll probably still be first in line on March 7.
We’ve had a bit of trouble getting this episode to go through the iTunes feed, so we hope this re-post will fix the problem. The original post, with episode description and embedded player, is here.
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Married Life
