12 Years a Slave

I went into 12 Years a Slave with high expectations and a lot of previous knowledge on the subject. I had read the memoir by Solomon Northup and was fascinated by the simple way he delved into the daily life of a slave. His story’s significance and the significance of the book was his ability to so completely get across how the daily toil, the boring, everydayness of slavery was as torturous as the whip that hit a slaves back. After having read Northup’s memoir and knowing that Steve McQueen would be the director of the film, I felt that the story would be done justly even before I saw the film. I went in with a bias, a bias that it would be great, which is something that usually leads to disappointment, but this time I left more impressed after than before.

The two previous Steve McQueen films I had seen have left a lasting impression on me. I am not a huge fan of Shame but I remember avidly watching it, struck by the way the story unraveled. Scene upon scene tumble on top of each other but very little information as to why the main character did the things he did or what he was thinking is ever given. In this film, I think the style got in the way of the movie a bit and left some story lines lacking; but the main thing is, Shame did stay with me and still to this day I will remember a few scenes as being terrific. In an imperfect way, I felt that McQueen showed the horror and torture of a sex addiction in the way that Aronofsky was able to show the horror and torture of a drug addiction in Requiem for a Dream. (And, in the same way as Aronofsky, this style can either lead to a great film, like Requiem and 12 Years, or can lead to a film which seems superficial and only touches the surface, such as Shame and Black Swan).

With a McQueen film, it seems that the audience is never being told how to feel but rather being forced to question why their being shown what they’re shown and what kind of impact the scenes have individually and as a whole. Instead of building stories in a traditional sense of building tension, telling the reasons why a character does and says certain things, and moving the plot to a climax and then a resolution, Shame and Hunger, both seem to drift, grow and explain themselves through their images. The impact comes later, not in a grand, sweeping way, but in a subtle aftermath.

For me, 12 Years is the most conventional of the three, but stayed true to McQueen’s style. Concrete time was not essential in telling Northup’s story (he was enslaved 12 years, it’s in the title); instead, McQueen lets the twelve years meld into each other. Northup unwillingly but almost smoothly moves through each event, being sold into slavery, traveling by boat to the south, moving from one plantation to the next, which emphasizes just how easily it was for him to get swept up and kept in slavery for so long. It was not one great thing that was so disturbing to Northup, but rather the fleeting aspect of a life in slavery. One moment you are listening to a woman’s tale of unjust enslavement, feeling for her, getting to know her and the next she is gone, never to be heard from or seen again. What a more fitting story for McQueen? Northup’s experience unraveled before him, tumbling ahead with no way out. As an outsider, a person who was different from a person born into slavery, he was a voyeur, witnessing scenes of torture and feeling the deep pain of having no freedom through the little and the big things. His story is a story of watching and telling what he saw, which I would say is the same way McQueen tells his stories, and this is why so many critics and viewers of 12 Years have said that it is the first 'true' story ever made about the topic of slavery.

We are not given long dialogues as to Northup’s feelings and thoughts. Instead we watch his face adjust from despair to sadness and eventually turn into determination as he sings a religious funeral hymn next to the plantation slaves after a slave, picking cotton in the field, has fallen over from exhaustion and died. We are not told in long dialogues how hard and long the days are picking cotton, but the heat and exhaustion are apparent as we watch beads of sweat drip off Solomon’s nose and down his chest and see slaves sit around a fire, picking at their meek dinners in silence. The silence in this moment speaks louder than a speech or a conversation ever could.

And then, these scenes of normalcy are interrupted by the great violence which occurs throughout Northup’s terrible experience. The violence just seems to erupt without warning or predictability, and then, just as easily life moves on. What better example of this than the scene in which Northup is hanged to a tree, but kept dangling with his toes touching the ground, keeping him alive but almost dead. Other than a brief dialogue between the slave driver and the men who are about to kill Northup, the scene is wordless. The images are what strike the chord.

We watch as his socked feet dance around in the mud, desperately moving in order to save himself from hanging. Then, we see another view of him hanging there but now, not as close up. We hear him strangling, we see him moving around, almost like a puppet, and yet he is surrounded by complete beauty. The giant weeping willow he is tied to hangs like a Monet painting. The image is like a shock to our system. What can be more a more complicated image than a man, struggling for his life, tied to a tree and yet surrounded by such a peaceful and gorgeous environment? It is an image such as this that drives home just how abnormal and inhumane slavery is.

And then, brilliantly, McQueen keeps the scene going. We watch as almost instantly life goes back to normal. The other slaves come out from hiding and continue their daily work. The normalcy of children playing a game cheerfully behind Northup, the mistress of the plantation walking along her balcony to see how he’s doing and then quietly slinking away, speak volumes to the horror of just how usual an event like what Northup is going through is.

But maybe the style is what makes 12 Years a bit unrelatable. Maybe the drifting from one place to the next, from one scene to the next, from one horror to the next, makes it impossible to completely connect with Northup. In Hunger, the infamous long scene between the main prisoner and the priest, in which the prisoner explains to the priest his reasoning behind going on a hunger strike, is what helps the viewer to understand the last third of the film. Without that, how could be possible relate and understand how a man could starve himself to death in protest, especially when we witness so graphically, the damage he does to himself? In 12 Years, we don’t have many scenes such as that, scenes which truly tell us what Northup feels and thinks. I would say there are only two such scenes in the whole movie; the scene in which he wakes up to find himself in chains and pleads to the men that he is a free man and the moment he attempts to calm or quiet the grieving mother who has been sold with him to a plantation away from her children. Maybe this is not enough for an audience to truly feel for Northup and connect with the subject matter.

I would argue though that the subtleties, McQueen’s craft of showing instead of telling, is exactly why 12 Years is the best film on slavery and the best movie this year. There are some horrors, unspeakable acts which human beings have done, that are so terrible putting words, fastening a story to them, can’t truly show the actual terror of them. I am reminded in this moment of the great Russian film, Come and See. For me, Come and See, is truly the greatest war film ever made and why it’s great is exactly the same reason 12 Years is great. We are the young boy in Come and See. We are thrown into the madness and not told how to feel but left to watch as the unspeakable horrors taking place all around us. We are not given any explanations, things merely happen as we drift from image to image. And in the end, we leave the movie, not with a great emotional high but a feeling of being drained. We leave with a feeling of having seen something that doesn’t make sense because we haven’t been told how to understand it; we’ve just been shown it. It is up to us, the viewer, to truly determine why we feel the way we do and to realize the point of what we've just seen; something audiences today are not willing or trained to do anymore.

I believe that with time and with viewings, 12 Years, will be on the lists as one of the greatest films of all time. I know that’s a big thing to say, but I truly feel that there are very few movies which have succeeded in doing what McQueen attempted to do in telling this story the way he did.

Before Midnight

Right off the bat, the tone, the themes, the maturity are apparent. The film doesn’t open with a conversation between the two characters audiences have grown to love and have grown up with. Instead, we see two feet, a boy’s converses walking in step with his father, Jesse. Jesse, the young, romantic pessimist from Before Sunrise and Before Sunset, is no longer worrying about the big philosophical ideas and self-absorbed everlasting search to find true love. Now he anxiously questions his adolescent son as to whether he has packed each and every item, if he has his boarding pass and if he’ll be able to manage his flight connection. The contrast is jarring. Just as Jesse’s appearance has changed, his eyes look tired and there are slight wrinkles forming on his forehead and around his eyes, so have his problems. As he says goodbye to his son, who lives in American while he lives in Europe, a deep sadness fills Ethan Hawke’s face and immediately it is obvious that the happily ever after we, the audience, had hoped would occur once our two star-crossed lovers finally got together hasn’t happened. In its place is a much starker reality.

In the previous two films Jesse, coming off a bad break up in the first and realizing that his marriage was a sham and his life hadn’t amounted to much in the second, is the negative realist and Celine was the hopeless dreamer, who still lived with a romanticized view of the world. In the third, it seems the roles have been reversed.

When Jesse responds to the news that his son has had his first kiss he immediately wonders if they could be together forever to which Celine responds, “You are so corny. What are you, a 12-year old girl?” Jesse, a semi-successful author, is still living in a dream world, inventing pompous and esoteric ideas for his next book when in reality, the only books which he is able to write and sell are the books based on his own life and his relationship. Celine, on the other hand, seems to have great animosity for the depiction of herself in the books; denying they are about her when she meets a total stranger but admitting it is based on her at a dinner with her friends. Why does she feel so ambivalent towards these romantic and meaningful love letters to her? This is the question audiences are left to discover throughout the course of the third film.

The realities of life have set in. Most critics wrote that the second to last scene is where the final battle takes place but really, that final fight starts much earlier in the film, at the beginning, in the car. Peppered throughout their multiple conversations are moments of anger and bitterness bubbling below the surface, waiting for the right moment to be unleashed.

From the brilliant opening sequence in the airport to the final blowout in the hotel, Jesse’s guilt for leaving his son for Celine and Celine’s own guilt and frustration from what her life has become are essentially tearing them apart. Life is harder than they both had expected and all that has been unsaid, the anger and the pain from their life together, comes out and hits them in the face throughout this one day. The opening conversation in the car mirrors the final conversation in the brutal hotel room fight.

The stylish French woman full of passion and independence has been taken over by a rounder, frumpier person of structure and order. She even refers to herself as the general when play acting with her twin girls and Jesse to delegate shopping tasks. Celine’s hardening has never seemed as noticeable as when they join their friends for lunch. All the other couples around the table make fun of each other and tell embarrassing stories but still they seem to genuinely love each other. Celine and Jesse though, haven’t dealt with the tension that erupted about Jesse’s son and every single moment of love is overshadowed by Celine’s biting remarks. The need to be her own person, to be recognized for her own talents beyond motherhood and the disappointment over her relationship with Jesse have turned her bitter. There are fleeting moments when the love she had and the fun she had with Jesse return only to be overshadowed by her own competition for independence and lack of enjoyment from life. Even in the delicate and touching last scene, where Jesse attempts to rekindle some of their love and move past what has been uncovered, it seems that Celine isn’t fully able to. Will these two be able to make it or is this the beginning of the end, as Celine states in the early part of the movie?

I hope in another nine years they make the next in the series. With time, I hope that their disappointment with life will have mellowed and they will find some peace- just as it seems the oldest members at the dinner table have.

The Bling Ring

Halfway through The Bling Ring, as the snobby rich teenage robbers headed into their fifth or sixth or seventh house, I thought to myself,” I’ve seen this, I get it, what’s the point?” I began to wonder why Sofia Coppola was showing the same thing again and again. The repetitiveness of the robberies, the clubs, the drugs and the drinking began to put me in a trance.

Coppola’s movies create a mood or you could say a feeling that lulls you into each of her worlds. Characters drift around Tokyo, Versailles or in this case, Los Angeles, as catchy music and static camera shots watch them dance around, stare out a window or try on clothes. Sometimes it works perfectly, as is the case with Lost in Translation, and other times the story gets lost and it begins to seem like one long music video, as with Marie Antoinette. One thing is true, all of Coppola’s movies build image upon image and let the character’s motivations, thoughts and desires be told, not through dialogue, but through the unraveling images and scenes which a viewer is left to decipher and interpret. She presents her characters and their worlds and leaves it up to us to decide how we want to feel about them. This is probably why on Rotten Tomatoes there are quotes from critics such as this,

“What does Coppola want us to think about these beautiful young idiots? What does she think? She's too cool or too wary or too close to her subject to engage”

or this

“Coppola neither makes a case for her characters nor places them inside of some kind of moral or critical framework; they simply pass through the frame, listing off name brands and staring at their phones.”

But for me, when the film was over I walked out and realized that I’d really enjoyed it. The scenes where the kids broke into each celeb's house, wandered amongst the often gaudy decor and took a sampling of the designer clothes/glasses/jewelry that filled rooms was fascinating and dangerously delightful. Their free flowing, self-absorbed conversations were humorous and engaging in comparison to similar scenes in a movie like Spring Breakers.

Instead of delving into who these kids are or showing in detail their trials and the aftermath, Coppola makes the bulk of the film scenes of celebrity/fashion obsessed kids ransacking through house after house. When it premiered at a film festival there were some critics which said they would have appreciated to have learned more about the young robbers’ backgrounds, what drove them to the crimes and why they would feel it was okay to do what they did, but I think in a way, Coppola conveyed an answer to all those questions.

Take for example an early scene in the movie. A teenage boy arrives in a new school. A pretty well dressed girl shows kindness to him and they agree to meet later. They immediately click and without much thought or planning the charismatic girl convinces the shy boy to sneak into a luxurious house where they end up stealing some things.

Peer pressure.

Another scene, two friends who live together are woken up by one of their mothers. They meander down to a kitchen straight out of a magazine. The mother gives them their daily Adderall and then leads the family prayer. It’s not any ordinary prayer though; it’s a prayer about self-empowerment. It’s a prayer for those who believe in the new religion which came from the self-help book, The Secret.

Rich spoiled kids.

Delusional mother.

Lack of parenting skills.

It seems that Coppola wasn’t concerned with delving deeper; there just simply wasn’t more to them than what she showed. They are a product of their environments and environments are exactly what Coppola is always able to capture and show.

And, maybe audiences/critics want to see some change in these kids’ characters or some growth as human beings but that’s not the real story. If you watch any interview with the real person which the character Emma Watson played is based on, she didn’t learn anything. She is an even bigger self-centered, celeb-obsessed person than her character in the movie. In post-prison interviews on E! she spouts wisdom which she’s learned since her prison sentence with a fake and rehearsed sentimentality that even the best PR agent in Hollywood couldn’t teach.

These kids were not just obsessed; they had been educated by the celeb/tabloid environment that surrounded them every day so that it was their reality. They simply lived a life of freedom, wealth and wannabe fame; all of which would make them feel they weren’t doing anything terribly wrong when they broke into a celebrity’s house.

Was it the influence of peer pressure? Was it their parents own lack of parenting skills and ridiculous theories for child rearing that led them to feel self-entitled? Was it simply how easy it was to get away with it and the influence of a culture that gives more than these kids ever deserved?

Coppola presents all as answers and lets us decide.

As for what Coppola thinks about her subjects, it seems she understands what led them to make the choices they made, but that doesn’t stop her from thinking that they and the rest of the celeb obsessed culture are ridiculous. Why else would she cast Leslie Mann, in a wonderful supporting role, as a loony and totally out of reality mother if not to poke fun? Coppola, who grew up and still lives in a rich California society, most likely understands these kids better than anyone.

Season 2- Episode 02- Who's Afraid of Baby Janice

In typical fashion of these hour long dramas, the second episode lacked the vivacity and life of the first. Although not as exciting or dynamic, some important story lines are set in motion.

Junior gets out of prison and one of the sweetest characters, Junior’s new right-hand man, Bobby is introduced. Janice and Livia begin to play each other, acting sweet and devoted one minute and the next dreaming of killing each other. In the end, it looks like they’ll have plenty of time to live out the drama, or as Tony said, reenact Who’s Afraid of Baby Janice since they’re going to be moving into the childhood home as soon as Livia is better.

One thing has changed though; Grandma Livia doesn’t seem to quite have the means to control the family anymore. Her desperate call to Carmela is a sign of that; although I’m sure even the littlest of jabs- talking to Meadow and A.J., a few words to Carmela and of course, using Janice will eventually help her with her ‘cause’.

Season 2 - Episode 01- Tony, A Perfect Life?

“When I was 21……” What a montage to open the season and welcome us back into the world of the Sopranos. Every character is introduced to us again without a single word being uttered. Some have changed, A.J. is older, Dr. Melfi is working out of a hotel, Tony is the boss and then, some haven’t changed at all, Carmela is still pulling her baked ziti out of the oven, Livia is still laying alone in a hospital bed- her cold eyes staring out at us plotting and scheming her next move and Chris is snorting a line of heroin. Time has passed but most remains the same or has it?

At first we believe Tony’s life is finally coming around. He seems happy, in control, making money and killing off anyone who even speaks a word of dirt against him. But after a number of surprises, Pussy’s mysterious reappearance and his money grubbing sister’s return, the repressed demons surface again. A panic attack and failed psychiatrists meeting later and Tony is back begging Melfi to take him back. It’s obvious she’ll eventually succumb and help him but at this point she gives him a good F you and sends him on his way. Although he may have seemed on top in the beginning, the reality is that Tony is lost, drifting in a world without control and ready to blow at any moment. By the end of the episode it seems clear that Tony is actually in a worst place than we’ve ever seen him before. What a great way to set up a new season!

Favorite moments:

The BBQ. Tony enraged by his sister’s sneaky action, must try to repress his anger at a family BBQ. A mega moment of acting for Gandolfini as Tony is forced to go ‘play’ with his friends by Carmela. He sees Pussy, manning the BBQ and begins slinging insults, his eyes beady and his tone bitter and harsh. Just as he couldn’t realize the truth about his mother until it was staring him in the face, he can’t face what he probably already knows about Pussy. If Pussy doesn’t know it, he’d better watch his back.

The final scene. Tony comes home early. Carmela, dressed in heels, her face made up and her hair coiffed perfectly for a day at home, is surprised to see him. They barely say more than a few words to each other. It seems like both have something to say but neither does. They’re distanced with no connection. She makes his food, he tells her to sit and still nothing. Maybe their marriage has hit one too many speed bumps, maybe without the kids around they don’t know what to do with each other, maybe they’ve stayed so separated that they have nothing in common anymore, or maybe one too many wrongs have been done and the marriage is broken. Whatever it is, you know this is the beginning of what will be a dramatic and difficult time in their marriage.

Episode 12 and 13- The Italian Mother

It all comes to a head here. Pussy has gone missing. Tony is lost in depression and hallucinating about a voluptuous Italian dental student house sitting next door. It takes an assassination attempt on his life to get Tony to wake up out of his stupor and begin to figure out the real truth. Then, the shit hits the fan.

Scenes to remember:
Dr. Melfi forces Tony to face something she’s already known for a long time; that his mother is the mastermind behind it all, including the attempt on his life. Man, alive! Even when I expect it and saw how carefully the season is built around this revelation, it is quite a scene when it finally is shown to Tony. The scene is constructed so tightly, every moment, the delivery of every line, the tension growing as Melfi rattles on and on about personality disorders, all to the point where it explodes or should I say Tony explodes, shattering the glass table, breaking the unseen barrier between psychiatrist and patient and coming so close to Melfi he actually spits in her mouth. It is an explosive moment, a shocking moment and a perfect moment.

As an audience we’re wishing Tony would listen to Melfi and finally we’re given the payoff when we learn that the retirement home where Livia has been living has been bugged by the FBI. As Tony listens to his mother rattle on about his seeing a psychiatrist, his depression and his meetings at her home, Tony has no other option but to face what he’s known but couldn’t admit.
Tony has to take care of those who’ve harmed him but before he can do that he and Carm (does it surprise anyone else that she takes the news of his mother in stride?) must suffer through one of the most uncomfortable family dinners. Imagine sitting at a table with your mother and uncle who have just tried to kill you?! The reactions from Carm, Junior, the kids and of course Tony are priceless and sell the scene so well.

Carm gets one more great scene in this season. Her confrontation of the priest is a wonderful piece of acting for Falco. Man, she is a tough woman. She direct, honest and takes no bullshit; it’s no wonder she’s with Tony.

Tony finally gets to take care of his dirty laundry. He kills his rat, kills Junior’s men but not Junior, who got lucky and sent to prison, and finally opens up to his guys about going to a psychiatrist. (Yet, another wonderful moment in this episode)! But just when he’s going to get the real revenge he’s been craving, smothering his mother, she’s beat him to the punch and pulled out the big guns by pretending to have had a stroke! He lets her know though, oh he lets her know.

These two episodes are so well done. The dream sequences are unreal, the scene where Tony is awoken from his stupor is thrilling, the moments we see Tony realizing what his mother has done are stunning, painful and cathartic. And finally, watching as Tony gets his justice is a thrilling and satisfying end to a wonderful first season. This is why The Sopranos is still considered the best. It broke the barriers and still, after having seen many of these shows, lives on. It’s like the fine wine Tony is always drinking, it only gets better with age.

Episode 11- A Rat in the Crew

Tony learns some disturbing news about his crew; there’s a rat. Junior learns some other disturbing news (of course from Livia) that Tony’s holding meetings with the other mob bosses behind his back.

It’s an episode that sets up what will change the comfortable way of life which Tony has been leading. In learning that his best friend has betrayed him Tony is haunted and does everything in his power to find out that it isn’t true. Tony is literally heartbroken and scene after scene demonstrates just how much of a betrayal this is.

If you have ever read about Gandolfini’s eyes, this is an episode which demonstrates the soulfulness of them. Watch the scene where Tony meets with Pussy at his house. He desperately wants Pussy to tell him the truth and he desperately wants the truth to be different from what he already knows.