Monday, September 28, 2009
Friday, September 25, 2009
Week of Sept. 25 to October 1 (Mann)
What’s on at the Tropic
by Phil Mann
As you probably know, there are two aquatic species called “dolphin.” One is the marine mammal also known as porpoise, the Flipper of television and Sea World fame. The other is a finned fish, cousin of pompano. This fish is good eating, very good, but you can’t find it anywhere around town because every market and restaurant calls it by its Hawaiian name, mahi mahi.
Why? Because we love Flipper too much to contemplate chowing down on something that even sounds like him. It’s actually “her,” since the original Flipper was played by a series of females.
That’s one of the things that you’ll learn from the new movie THE COVE, opening at the Tropic today.
That’s sweet, but the rest of the story, as Paul Harvey would say, will scare the life out of you. Thanks to the amazing undercover work of a group of dedicated activists, led by Ric O’Barry, we learn of porpoise roundups in a small town in Japan. The technique resembles the corralling of wild horses, with an array of boats driving the creatures into shore with sonic probes.
The best of them go to petting pools and shows around the world, but that’s only a small fraction of those corralled. The rest have a less happy end. But you’ll have to see the movie to find out. The filmmaking team managed to install video cameras hidden in “rocks,” specially built for them by George Lucas’ Star Wars complex, Industrial Light and Magic. They planted these devices with the help of world-class free divers and a team using night vision and heat-sensitive cameras.
It’s all a great documentary thriller with amazing footage.
The other new film this week is also a documentary, but more for Guitar Hero lovers than dolphin fans. IT MIGHT GET LOUD, from Davis Guggenheim (best known for his collaboration with Al Gore on the Oscar-winning An Inconvenient Truth) has turned his cameras to something completely non-political. The subject is the electric guitar, told through the stories of three masters, Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin; the Edge of U2; and Jack White, of the White Stripes.
Don’t worry; it’s not just talking heads. There’s plenty of playing and great jamming with all three together. A don’t miss musical education and entertainment. Rolling Stone of course loved it (“rock heaven”), but the New York Times agreed: “It Might Get Loud is more than a narrowly focused fan artifact. It gives those of us with tin ears and clumsy fingers a chance to linger in the presence of serious artists with formidable chops and big, if not always clearly expressed, ideas about what they do. And it will put you in the mood to listen.”
On the non-documentary side of things, the romantic comedy ADAM continues into its second week. Everyone who has seen this movie comes out laughing and crying. I’ve heard that some of you are avoiding it because the hero has Asperger’s syndrome. But it’s not a movie of the Rain Man genre, more a love story with a different spin. You might give it a chance.
And MOON is also continuing for a second week. This is a sci-fi buddy movie, where one of the buddies is a computer named GERTY, but voiced by Kevin Spacey. It’s “a superior example of that threatened genre, hard science-fiction,” says Roger Ebert.
Oh, and Jacques Tati is back in the Monday night classic with MON ONCLE. Now, that’s fun!
Full schedules and info at TropicCinema.com
Comments, please, to pmann99@gmail.com
[from Key West, the newspaper - www.kwtn.com]
by Phil Mann
As you probably know, there are two aquatic species called “dolphin.” One is the marine mammal also known as porpoise, the Flipper of television and Sea World fame. The other is a finned fish, cousin of pompano. This fish is good eating, very good, but you can’t find it anywhere around town because every market and restaurant calls it by its Hawaiian name, mahi mahi.
Why? Because we love Flipper too much to contemplate chowing down on something that even sounds like him. It’s actually “her,” since the original Flipper was played by a series of females.
That’s one of the things that you’ll learn from the new movie THE COVE, opening at the Tropic today.
That’s sweet, but the rest of the story, as Paul Harvey would say, will scare the life out of you. Thanks to the amazing undercover work of a group of dedicated activists, led by Ric O’Barry, we learn of porpoise roundups in a small town in Japan. The technique resembles the corralling of wild horses, with an array of boats driving the creatures into shore with sonic probes.
The best of them go to petting pools and shows around the world, but that’s only a small fraction of those corralled. The rest have a less happy end. But you’ll have to see the movie to find out. The filmmaking team managed to install video cameras hidden in “rocks,” specially built for them by George Lucas’ Star Wars complex, Industrial Light and Magic. They planted these devices with the help of world-class free divers and a team using night vision and heat-sensitive cameras.
It’s all a great documentary thriller with amazing footage.
The other new film this week is also a documentary, but more for Guitar Hero lovers than dolphin fans. IT MIGHT GET LOUD, from Davis Guggenheim (best known for his collaboration with Al Gore on the Oscar-winning An Inconvenient Truth) has turned his cameras to something completely non-political. The subject is the electric guitar, told through the stories of three masters, Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin; the Edge of U2; and Jack White, of the White Stripes.
Don’t worry; it’s not just talking heads. There’s plenty of playing and great jamming with all three together. A don’t miss musical education and entertainment. Rolling Stone of course loved it (“rock heaven”), but the New York Times agreed: “It Might Get Loud is more than a narrowly focused fan artifact. It gives those of us with tin ears and clumsy fingers a chance to linger in the presence of serious artists with formidable chops and big, if not always clearly expressed, ideas about what they do. And it will put you in the mood to listen.”
On the non-documentary side of things, the romantic comedy ADAM continues into its second week. Everyone who has seen this movie comes out laughing and crying. I’ve heard that some of you are avoiding it because the hero has Asperger’s syndrome. But it’s not a movie of the Rain Man genre, more a love story with a different spin. You might give it a chance.
And MOON is also continuing for a second week. This is a sci-fi buddy movie, where one of the buddies is a computer named GERTY, but voiced by Kevin Spacey. It’s “a superior example of that threatened genre, hard science-fiction,” says Roger Ebert.
Oh, and Jacques Tati is back in the Monday night classic with MON ONCLE. Now, that’s fun!
Full schedules and info at TropicCinema.com
Comments, please, to pmann99@gmail.com
[from Key West, the newspaper - www.kwtn.com]
The Cove (Rhoades)
“The Cove” Will Leave You Shocked and Angry
Reviewed by Shirrel Rhoades
Years ago I used to be addicted to those “Mondo Cane” style documentaries. A sociological tour of bizarre customs around the world. There were dozens of them, each movie more shocking than the one before.
Strange delicacies. Odd rituals. Piles of skulls. Fingers severed by Asian gangs. Bulls decapitated. Species decimated. And buckets of blood. Watching these films was akin to the can’t-turn-your-eyes-away fascination you experience when passing the scene of an accident.
Today, I cannot understand how I endured these disturbing films. But some uncomfortable documentaries need to be seen.
“The Cove” – currently playing at the Tropic Cinema – is one such film.
National Geographic photographer Louis Psihoyos was determined to expose the slaughter of thousands of dolphins each year in a cove near Taiji, a small town in Wakayama, Japan.
Taiji is considered the birthplace of Japan’s traditional whaling industry. It’s also the site of dolphin drive hunting, a method of herding these mammals onto the beach with boats. There they are slaughtered in a vicious fashion for their meat.
Keep in mind, dolphins are among the most intelligent animals on the planet. Their brains are actually larger than humans’.
In terms of brain size to body weight, dolphins hold up well. They have an Encephalization Quotient (EQ) of 4 to 5, compared to humans at 6.5 to 7.5. And they can learn to understand complicated language-like commands (which is also true of the great apes).
Their cuddly appearance and friendly attitude have made them as popular to most people as teddy bears.
Dolphins also display culture, something long believed to be unique to humans and certain primates.
The Greek sage Plutarch observed: “To the dolphin alone, beyond all other, nature has granted what the best philosophers seek: friendship for no advantage.”
So it was with this viewpoint that Psihoyos took his film crew to Japan.
Getting the facts wasn’t easy. The hunters would stop at nothing to prevent an exposÈ of their practices. The film’s tagline says it well: “Shallow Water. Deep Secret.”
In this remote cove, surrounded by barbed wire and “Keep Out” signs, the fishermen of Taiji engage in an unseen hunt under cover of night. Driven by the lucrative dolphin entertainment industry and a market for mercury-tainted dolphin meat, they capture and kill these gentle mammals in the most brutal manner.
Joined by the Ocean Preservation Society and former dolphin trainer Ric O’Barry (TV’s “Flipper”), Psihoyos launched his undercover operation to photograph this off-limits cove. Assembling an “Oceans Eleven-style team of underwater sound and camera experts, special effects artists, marine explorers, adrenaline junkies and world-class free divers,” he used underwater microphones and high-definition cameras disguised as rocks to get the story. The result of this covert filmmaking unfolds like a gripping eco-adventure thriller.
You will be shocked by what you see. And as angry as a card-carrying PETA member.
Unlike those old “Mondo Cane” movies, this documentary is not intended to entertain or amaze. It’s a call to action that should be heeded. Here is a Rwanda-style “genocide” taking place in the sea.
What can you do? Sign the Facebook petition protesting this carnage at http://apps.facebook.com/causes/petitions/252?m=c30c32f5&recruiter_id=57024389&prs=053. I did.
srhoades@aol.com
[from Solares Hill]
Reviewed by Shirrel Rhoades
Years ago I used to be addicted to those “Mondo Cane” style documentaries. A sociological tour of bizarre customs around the world. There were dozens of them, each movie more shocking than the one before.
Strange delicacies. Odd rituals. Piles of skulls. Fingers severed by Asian gangs. Bulls decapitated. Species decimated. And buckets of blood. Watching these films was akin to the can’t-turn-your-eyes-away fascination you experience when passing the scene of an accident.
Today, I cannot understand how I endured these disturbing films. But some uncomfortable documentaries need to be seen.
“The Cove” – currently playing at the Tropic Cinema – is one such film.
National Geographic photographer Louis Psihoyos was determined to expose the slaughter of thousands of dolphins each year in a cove near Taiji, a small town in Wakayama, Japan.
Taiji is considered the birthplace of Japan’s traditional whaling industry. It’s also the site of dolphin drive hunting, a method of herding these mammals onto the beach with boats. There they are slaughtered in a vicious fashion for their meat.
Keep in mind, dolphins are among the most intelligent animals on the planet. Their brains are actually larger than humans’.
In terms of brain size to body weight, dolphins hold up well. They have an Encephalization Quotient (EQ) of 4 to 5, compared to humans at 6.5 to 7.5. And they can learn to understand complicated language-like commands (which is also true of the great apes).
Their cuddly appearance and friendly attitude have made them as popular to most people as teddy bears.
Dolphins also display culture, something long believed to be unique to humans and certain primates.
The Greek sage Plutarch observed: “To the dolphin alone, beyond all other, nature has granted what the best philosophers seek: friendship for no advantage.”
So it was with this viewpoint that Psihoyos took his film crew to Japan.
Getting the facts wasn’t easy. The hunters would stop at nothing to prevent an exposÈ of their practices. The film’s tagline says it well: “Shallow Water. Deep Secret.”
In this remote cove, surrounded by barbed wire and “Keep Out” signs, the fishermen of Taiji engage in an unseen hunt under cover of night. Driven by the lucrative dolphin entertainment industry and a market for mercury-tainted dolphin meat, they capture and kill these gentle mammals in the most brutal manner.
Joined by the Ocean Preservation Society and former dolphin trainer Ric O’Barry (TV’s “Flipper”), Psihoyos launched his undercover operation to photograph this off-limits cove. Assembling an “Oceans Eleven-style team of underwater sound and camera experts, special effects artists, marine explorers, adrenaline junkies and world-class free divers,” he used underwater microphones and high-definition cameras disguised as rocks to get the story. The result of this covert filmmaking unfolds like a gripping eco-adventure thriller.
You will be shocked by what you see. And as angry as a card-carrying PETA member.
Unlike those old “Mondo Cane” movies, this documentary is not intended to entertain or amaze. It’s a call to action that should be heeded. Here is a Rwanda-style “genocide” taking place in the sea.
What can you do? Sign the Facebook petition protesting this carnage at http://apps.facebook.com/causes/petitions/252?m=c30c32f5&recruiter_id=57024389&prs=053. I did.
srhoades@aol.com
[from Solares Hill]
It Might Get Loud (Rhoades)
“It Might Get Loud” Does
Reviewed by Shirrel Rhoades
I remember when my son came home and told me he’d discovered this new group called The Beatles. Laughing, I replied that I’d lived the Beatles; he was merely recycling them.
Maybe I shouldn’t have been so proprietary with my music. He started listening to Heavy Metal.
If you grew up on eardrum-assaulting highly amped music, you will definitely want to see (and hear) a new documentary called “It Might Get Loud.” This paean to the electric guitar is playing at the Tropic Cinema.
The electric guitar has been with us for more than half a century now, dominating the popular music scene. No longer are we shocked that Bob Dylan plugged in.
Director Davis Guggenheim (“An Inconvenient Truth”) says, “You might forget the incredible range of expression that the creation pioneered by Les Paul can achieve in the hands of masters.”
As my friend Bill Turner (one of Bill Hailey’s Comets) recently recalled, “Les Paul had the foresight to realize that every single step of the recording process needed to be re-invented ... from the construction design of the guitar; the pickups; the recording lathe/turntable (and soon after this, the tape recorder); the amplifier (though he was one of, if not the first, to record the guitar direct into the recorder, bypassing the amp).”
For “It Might Get Loud,” Guggenheim brings together three electric guitar virtuosos from different generations: Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin, The Edge of U2, and Jack White of The White Stripes. The film weaves the trio of stories together to show how each of them developed their unique sound.
While most rock ’n’ roll documentaries focus on backstage drama, this “affectionate tribute to rock’s most distinctive instrument,” concentrates on the music, offering “intimate access to the creative process.”
As Davis Guggenheim promises, “The film might not affect how you play, but it will change how you listen.”
srhoades@aol.com
[from Solares Hill]
Reviewed by Shirrel Rhoades
I remember when my son came home and told me he’d discovered this new group called The Beatles. Laughing, I replied that I’d lived the Beatles; he was merely recycling them.
Maybe I shouldn’t have been so proprietary with my music. He started listening to Heavy Metal.
If you grew up on eardrum-assaulting highly amped music, you will definitely want to see (and hear) a new documentary called “It Might Get Loud.” This paean to the electric guitar is playing at the Tropic Cinema.
The electric guitar has been with us for more than half a century now, dominating the popular music scene. No longer are we shocked that Bob Dylan plugged in.
Director Davis Guggenheim (“An Inconvenient Truth”) says, “You might forget the incredible range of expression that the creation pioneered by Les Paul can achieve in the hands of masters.”
As my friend Bill Turner (one of Bill Hailey’s Comets) recently recalled, “Les Paul had the foresight to realize that every single step of the recording process needed to be re-invented ... from the construction design of the guitar; the pickups; the recording lathe/turntable (and soon after this, the tape recorder); the amplifier (though he was one of, if not the first, to record the guitar direct into the recorder, bypassing the amp).”
For “It Might Get Loud,” Guggenheim brings together three electric guitar virtuosos from different generations: Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin, The Edge of U2, and Jack White of The White Stripes. The film weaves the trio of stories together to show how each of them developed their unique sound.
While most rock ’n’ roll documentaries focus on backstage drama, this “affectionate tribute to rock’s most distinctive instrument,” concentrates on the music, offering “intimate access to the creative process.”
As Davis Guggenheim promises, “The film might not affect how you play, but it will change how you listen.”
srhoades@aol.com
[from Solares Hill]
Friday, September 18, 2009
Week of Sept. 18 to Sept. 24 (Mann)
What’s on at the Tropic
By Phil Mann
Sometimes I get annoyed at the Tropic for holding films too long. I’m like a junkie needing a new fix of my beloved cinema, and the pickings were thin last week. But we’ve got a tsunami starting today, with four new movies covering the gamut from innocent young love (ADAM) to sci-fi (MOON), with some things for art buffs (HERB & DOROTHY) and illicit lovers (THE GIRLFRIEND EXPERIENCE) in between.
Let’s start with ADAM. He’s a troubled young man (Hugh Dancy from The Jane Austen Book Club), brilliant at work but hopeless at life. He’s got Asperger’s syndrome. Into his apartment building comes Beth, a perfect young thing, but with an imperfect father. Those are the building blocks of a story that will have you laughing and crying. If this were a TV film, it would be about Adam’s condition. But this movie will surprise you with its broader perspective, and not quite so pat resolution. Adam is an engineer. He knows facts. But he’s never lived alone until his father dies suddenly. His only window on reality is his father’s old Army buddy (played by the wonderful Frankie Faison) who insists that he engage in a little “guy talk.” And the girl who just moved in downstairs is just the right subject, not only for guy talk but also a sweet movie.
MOON is a two character film. One is human: astronaut Sam Bell (Sam Rockwell). The other is the computer GERTY, seemingly a first cousin of HAL. Sam is stationed on the moon on a three-year contract, the sole occupant of a facility mining helium for shipment to the earth. Sam has a only a few weeks left on his contract. But things are not entirely as they seem. The only one who knows the real facts is GERTY, who’s a nicer guy than you can imagine despite the fact that his facial expressions are only emoticons – you know :) or :( etc. There are no Star Trek space ships and dramatic encounters in this sci fi world, only a human story in which the computer has a bigger heart than its corporate master.
Was there ever a good corporation in the movies? Why do people think we’re better off with profit-driven corporate health insurers than the government? GERTY would know better. But I digress.
HERB & DOROTHY is a documentary. The Vogels had ordinary Civil Service jobs as a postal clerk and librarian. But with a rent-controlled apartment and no kids, they weren’t living large. Instead they bought art, pieces small enough to fit into their one bedroom apartment and cheap enough to fit into Herb’s postal salarly. Starting in the 1960’s they accumulated over 4,000 pieces, many from later-to-become famed artists like Sol Lewitt, Julian Schnabel and Chuck Close. This collection has become one of the leading troves in America, and the understated duo the most-beloved collectors in the New York art world. Meet them -- still alive in their eighth and ninth decades -- and the artists who love them, and learn about the art world in this superb documentary.
THE GIRLFRIEND EXPERIENCE is something completely different. Steven Soderbergh, an inexhaustible source of original filmmaking ideas, turns to the world of the call girl in this latest offering. Chelsea is a high-priced plum, a sexual entrepreneur running her own business without a pimp, who thinks she can keep her job separate from her life with a live-in boyfriend. The star (Sasha Grey) is an actress of sorts: her prior roles are in porn films. So she has a feel for the subject. The film is relatively short (77 minutes) and has vérité quality as it follows Chelsea from work to home. Makes for an interesting bookend to ADAM, in that it’s another look the travails of young lovers. Leave it to Soderbergh to keep giving us new insights into the world.
Full info and schedules at TropicCinema.com.
Comments, please, to pmann99@gmail.com.
[from Solares Hill]
By Phil Mann
Sometimes I get annoyed at the Tropic for holding films too long. I’m like a junkie needing a new fix of my beloved cinema, and the pickings were thin last week. But we’ve got a tsunami starting today, with four new movies covering the gamut from innocent young love (ADAM) to sci-fi (MOON), with some things for art buffs (HERB & DOROTHY) and illicit lovers (THE GIRLFRIEND EXPERIENCE) in between.
Let’s start with ADAM. He’s a troubled young man (Hugh Dancy from The Jane Austen Book Club), brilliant at work but hopeless at life. He’s got Asperger’s syndrome. Into his apartment building comes Beth, a perfect young thing, but with an imperfect father. Those are the building blocks of a story that will have you laughing and crying. If this were a TV film, it would be about Adam’s condition. But this movie will surprise you with its broader perspective, and not quite so pat resolution. Adam is an engineer. He knows facts. But he’s never lived alone until his father dies suddenly. His only window on reality is his father’s old Army buddy (played by the wonderful Frankie Faison) who insists that he engage in a little “guy talk.” And the girl who just moved in downstairs is just the right subject, not only for guy talk but also a sweet movie.
MOON is a two character film. One is human: astronaut Sam Bell (Sam Rockwell). The other is the computer GERTY, seemingly a first cousin of HAL. Sam is stationed on the moon on a three-year contract, the sole occupant of a facility mining helium for shipment to the earth. Sam has a only a few weeks left on his contract. But things are not entirely as they seem. The only one who knows the real facts is GERTY, who’s a nicer guy than you can imagine despite the fact that his facial expressions are only emoticons – you know :) or :( etc. There are no Star Trek space ships and dramatic encounters in this sci fi world, only a human story in which the computer has a bigger heart than its corporate master.
Was there ever a good corporation in the movies? Why do people think we’re better off with profit-driven corporate health insurers than the government? GERTY would know better. But I digress.
HERB & DOROTHY is a documentary. The Vogels had ordinary Civil Service jobs as a postal clerk and librarian. But with a rent-controlled apartment and no kids, they weren’t living large. Instead they bought art, pieces small enough to fit into their one bedroom apartment and cheap enough to fit into Herb’s postal salarly. Starting in the 1960’s they accumulated over 4,000 pieces, many from later-to-become famed artists like Sol Lewitt, Julian Schnabel and Chuck Close. This collection has become one of the leading troves in America, and the understated duo the most-beloved collectors in the New York art world. Meet them -- still alive in their eighth and ninth decades -- and the artists who love them, and learn about the art world in this superb documentary.
THE GIRLFRIEND EXPERIENCE is something completely different. Steven Soderbergh, an inexhaustible source of original filmmaking ideas, turns to the world of the call girl in this latest offering. Chelsea is a high-priced plum, a sexual entrepreneur running her own business without a pimp, who thinks she can keep her job separate from her life with a live-in boyfriend. The star (Sasha Grey) is an actress of sorts: her prior roles are in porn films. So she has a feel for the subject. The film is relatively short (77 minutes) and has vérité quality as it follows Chelsea from work to home. Makes for an interesting bookend to ADAM, in that it’s another look the travails of young lovers. Leave it to Soderbergh to keep giving us new insights into the world.
Full info and schedules at TropicCinema.com.
Comments, please, to pmann99@gmail.com.
[from Solares Hill]
Adam (Rhoades)
Autistic “Adam” Finds His Eve
Reviewed by Shirrel Rhoades
No, it’s not “Rainman Falls in Love.” But the kid next door in this sweet little film suffers from Asperger’s syndrome, a type of autism. Today’s statistics show that 1 child in 150 is likely to be autistic.
However, the chances of a pretty girl like Beth falling for a boy like Adam are closer to 1 in a million. This is the story of that million-to-one romance. “Adam” is currently playing at the Tropic Cinema.
Writer-director Max Mayer says, “Autism spectrum I think has become a much more prominent issue.” Asperger’s causes those affected to struggle with social interaction and they often engage in repetitive behavior.
Our plot: When brainy writer Beth moves into her new apartment, she encounters an odd-duck boy who lives downstairs. She finds his awkward behavior perplexing, but likes his gentle nature.
The title role is played by Hugh Dancy, a young actor you’ve swooned over in “The Jane Austin Book Club.” And thrilled over as Galahad in “King Arthur.”
Beth is played by Rose Bryne, the lovely young star of TV’s “Damages,” an actress capable of holding her own against Glenn Close in that show.
Seems that Hugh Dancy has become something of an expert on Asperger’s syndrome. Portraying Adam led the actor to want to find out more about the condition.
“The script arrived without any covering note or description – all I knew was the title, so I didn’t know what I was reading,” he recalls. “So the first thing I thought was, some way in, I was seeing this character was there and I was really hoping there was going to be a concrete reason for his behavior. What I mean by that is that you’ll see a lot of independent scripts – particularly American scripts – with these kind of young men who are a little weird or a little off somehow and they’re kind of special but they’re going to teach us something. And they’re the ‘holy fool’ character, which I find can be really quite mawkish.”
Instead, he found a character with a very real medical condition. “Starting from a place of total ignorance as I was, naturally the first thing I did was type ‘Asperger’s’ into Google. That keeps you busy for a week.”
Asperger’s manifests itself in many ways, including an inability to look people in the eye when speaking to them. This presented a challenge for the actors. “You feel very odd doing that,” Dancy says. “We only had 22 days to make the movie and it takes quite a while to feel comfortable doing that. All the things you rely on as an actor, with a camera anyway, it tells a lot just by looking at your face, the idea that you’re always going to be essentially distracted in a way, you’re never going to be able to be direct is tough.
“Initially, I didn’t quite know how to do it and Max at one point said, ‘You’re looking a bit like a blind person.’ Because, I guess, you’re looking around without intent. But, eventually I like to think as it made more sense for me, it probably became more easy for Rose than difficult. Because presumably the more genuinely confused she was, the more helpful it would be for her performance.”
Rose Byrne credits a good script. “The script was so well-structured. You have the initial superficial attraction, and then becoming friends, and at one point you think they’re not going to get together… It’s very organic. By the time it happens, it’s very true. I never had a problem believing this could happen, because of the structure of the script.”
“Adam” is at times funny. And there’s an unusual courtship between Beth and Adam at play here. But that doesn’t quite explain it. “This movie isn’t, ultimately a romantic-comedy,” Hugh Dancy insists.
He sees it more as a character study. “The truth is, if you screen this movie in front of a big audience of the general public, you are screening it to people with Asperger’s or at the very least people who live with people who have Asperger’s because it’s that common.”
srhoades@aol.com
[from Solares Hill]
Reviewed by Shirrel Rhoades
No, it’s not “Rainman Falls in Love.” But the kid next door in this sweet little film suffers from Asperger’s syndrome, a type of autism. Today’s statistics show that 1 child in 150 is likely to be autistic.
However, the chances of a pretty girl like Beth falling for a boy like Adam are closer to 1 in a million. This is the story of that million-to-one romance. “Adam” is currently playing at the Tropic Cinema.
Writer-director Max Mayer says, “Autism spectrum I think has become a much more prominent issue.” Asperger’s causes those affected to struggle with social interaction and they often engage in repetitive behavior.
Our plot: When brainy writer Beth moves into her new apartment, she encounters an odd-duck boy who lives downstairs. She finds his awkward behavior perplexing, but likes his gentle nature.
The title role is played by Hugh Dancy, a young actor you’ve swooned over in “The Jane Austin Book Club.” And thrilled over as Galahad in “King Arthur.”
Beth is played by Rose Bryne, the lovely young star of TV’s “Damages,” an actress capable of holding her own against Glenn Close in that show.
Seems that Hugh Dancy has become something of an expert on Asperger’s syndrome. Portraying Adam led the actor to want to find out more about the condition.
“The script arrived without any covering note or description – all I knew was the title, so I didn’t know what I was reading,” he recalls. “So the first thing I thought was, some way in, I was seeing this character was there and I was really hoping there was going to be a concrete reason for his behavior. What I mean by that is that you’ll see a lot of independent scripts – particularly American scripts – with these kind of young men who are a little weird or a little off somehow and they’re kind of special but they’re going to teach us something. And they’re the ‘holy fool’ character, which I find can be really quite mawkish.”
Instead, he found a character with a very real medical condition. “Starting from a place of total ignorance as I was, naturally the first thing I did was type ‘Asperger’s’ into Google. That keeps you busy for a week.”
Asperger’s manifests itself in many ways, including an inability to look people in the eye when speaking to them. This presented a challenge for the actors. “You feel very odd doing that,” Dancy says. “We only had 22 days to make the movie and it takes quite a while to feel comfortable doing that. All the things you rely on as an actor, with a camera anyway, it tells a lot just by looking at your face, the idea that you’re always going to be essentially distracted in a way, you’re never going to be able to be direct is tough.
“Initially, I didn’t quite know how to do it and Max at one point said, ‘You’re looking a bit like a blind person.’ Because, I guess, you’re looking around without intent. But, eventually I like to think as it made more sense for me, it probably became more easy for Rose than difficult. Because presumably the more genuinely confused she was, the more helpful it would be for her performance.”
Rose Byrne credits a good script. “The script was so well-structured. You have the initial superficial attraction, and then becoming friends, and at one point you think they’re not going to get together… It’s very organic. By the time it happens, it’s very true. I never had a problem believing this could happen, because of the structure of the script.”
“Adam” is at times funny. And there’s an unusual courtship between Beth and Adam at play here. But that doesn’t quite explain it. “This movie isn’t, ultimately a romantic-comedy,” Hugh Dancy insists.
He sees it more as a character study. “The truth is, if you screen this movie in front of a big audience of the general public, you are screening it to people with Asperger’s or at the very least people who live with people who have Asperger’s because it’s that common.”
srhoades@aol.com
[from Solares Hill]
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