Manchester by the Sea

seen on 24 January 2017

Written and directed by Kenneth Lonergan, this deeply affecting film stars Casey Affleck as Lee Chandler, Michelle Williams as his estranged wife Randi, Kyle Chandler as his brother Joe and Lucas Hedges as his nephew Patrick.

Lee, emotionally and socially shut off from his world, is a janitor taking care of several apartment blocks in Boston. The film opens with scenes of his work (generally quite thankless, though he does overhear one tactless resident confessing on the phone to a friend that she is in love with her janitor), intercut with flashbacks of a boat trip with his brother and young nephew in the town of Manchester by the Sea. 

In the middle of winter he receives news that his brother Joe has suffered a cardiac arrest, but by the time he reaches Manchester by the Sea, Joe has died, and it is up to Lee to tell his now 16-year-old nephew the news. It transpires that Joe has appointed Lee as Patrick's guardian, a position that Lee is most unwilling to take on.

The situation could have been melodramatic; the interaction between uncle and nephew could have been one of those sentimental affairs in which talking and emoting bring about resolution and 'growth'. The film does not take these paths. Instead, Lee and Patrick have flashes of rapport and periods of intense unease, neither able to deal with the grief and confusion in their lives. The reasons for Lee's deeper alienation are revealed through memories that are so painful that they can only leave lasting damage. Life might indeed go on, but it is by no means easy.

The performances are excellent. Casey Affleck often seems to be unreadable, but his is a masterful portrayal of an inarticulate and profoundly hurt man, wonderfully rendered in his shifting uneasy expression, his occasional outbursts of temper, and his sheer doggedness. It is also very astute that in the flashback scenes, before the catastrophe that has shaped his life, although he is more cheerful, he is believably the same man. Michelle Williams gives a wrenching performance as his estranged wife Randi; the final scene between them is almost too painful to witness. The young actor Lucas Hedges portrays an adolescent's self-centredness and uncertainty with complete conviction; again the moments when he does become aware of his uncle's distress are understated but powerful, catching exactly the transience of a teenager's empathy for an adult.

It's one of the best films I've seen for years.

Jackie

seen on 21 January 2017

Directed by Pablo Larrain and starring Natalie Portman as Jackie Kennedy, Peter Sarsgaard as Bobby Kennedy, Greta Gerwig as Nancy Tuckerman and Billy Crudup as the Interviewer, this film examines the devastating effect of John F Kennedy's assassination on his widow. 

There are flashbacks to the creation of the documentary in which Jackie Kennedy guided a film crew through the White House after her extensive (and expensive) restorations in 1961, but most of the film is concerned with the immediate aftermath of the assassination, days in which Jackie is often overpowered by grief, but is also resolutely planning and insisting on a grand state funeral emulating that of Abraham Lincoln's almost a century earlier. There are, finally, scenes set in Hyannis Port, the Kennedy enclave in Massachusetts, some time later, in which a journalist is interviewing Jackie, who proves at times vulnerable and at times filled with steely resolution.

The structure of the film is intriguing, because these elements are not presented chronologically. Instead, they are interleaved and overlapped, both emphasising the extremes of Jackie's experience and at the same time keeping us at some remove from her. This tactic preserves something of the historical character's enigmatic public persona. Her appearance in the White House documentary shows the gaucheness of an inexperienced media presence (a sign of the times as much as anything else: nowadays, one assumes, public figures spend more time learning to be at ease in front of the cameras). But in the crisis of preparing for the state funeral, she is determined and in control. Even when she momentarily falters in her plan to have all the attendees walk behind the cortege, this looks like a strong prudential decision. When she reverts to the original plan, the idea that she is vacillating hardly gains ground as she neatly if provocatively makes prudence look like cowardice.

Natalie Portman's performance is entirely plausible, catching Jackie's mannerisms without succumbing to mere imitation, and easily commanding the film. The supporting cast is also very strong. The political crisis is not the focus of the film, so the tension between the Kennedy administration and the incoming Johnson team is barely hinted at, but this is appropriate given the principal area of interest, Jackie Kennedy's own (presumed) experience. She several times mentions the Johnsons' "kindness" in a way that may indicate that this is a polite fiction, but the extreme awkwardness of having to vacate the White House in an emergency rather than as the result of the normal democratic process is here almost a distraction from her sense of her larger responsibility.

The occasional recourse to documentary footage is discreetly handled and underlines the skill with which the period and the events have been recreated by the director and his team.

Fascinating.

La La Land

seen on 13 January 2017

This film is an affectionate tribute to the Hollywood musical film, directed by Damien Chazelle and starring Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone, with music by Justin Hurwitz. It's filmed in Cinemascope with the bright primary colours associated with Technicolor, but also features complex tracking shots that would have been extremely difficult to compose in the glory days of backlot production. Nonetheless, reality is not the name of the game. The opening number is set in a freeway traffic jam, but the sky is inordinately bright and clear; not even in the distance is there a hint of smog.

The songs are, in fact, not particularly memorable, that is to say, not catchy in the way of the classics of the genre, though they do set the required tone - optimism, energy, romance, bittersweet recognition of lost opportunity. There are many visual references to older movies, from a swing around a lamppost (though not in the rain) to a drive up to a location used in Rebel Without a Cause, to say nothing of pointing out the window on the Warners lot used in a Paris scene from Casablanca.