COMEDY IN DRAMA -- COMEDIANS AND SERIOUS ROLES

I have long had a fascination with comedians in dramatic roles. They are rare but usually brilliant. There is Art Carney who won an Oscar for Harry and Tonto in 1974. Richard Pryor gave a great performance in Paul Schrader’s Blue Collar in 1978. The last 25 years however have brought us some of the best performances from the unlikeliest of actors. In 1984, Bill Murray had already scored hits with Caddyshack and Stripes before exploding with Ghostbusters (and its subsequent sequel released a few years later). But in 1988, Murray decided to star in a black comedy directed by Richard Donner, Scrooged, a variation on Charles Dickens classic tale of A Christmas Carol.

Murray continued making serious efforts at comedy with 1993’s Groundhog Day and 1998’s Rushmore, directed by Wes Anderson. His budding friendship with Anderson led to two other films, 2001’s The Royal Tenenbaums and 2004’s The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. Around this time, Murray was courted by Sofia Coppola, cousin of Jason Schwartzman, who co-starred with Murray in Rushmore. At first, Murray declined the role of a jaded celebrity stuck in Tokyo in Coppola’s upcoming Lost in Translation. Eventually however he agreed to star in the film, and won an Academy Award nomination for his performance. He lost to Sean Penn in a controversial Best Actor race. Since then, Murray has starred in several other dramas including Jim Jarmusch’s Coffee and Cigarettes and Broken Flowers.

Other successful comedians in the last two decades have turned to drama after becoming stars in comedy. Jim Carrey won acclaim and two Golden Globes for his performances in The Truman Show and Man on the Moon in the late 90s. He also starred in The Majestic, an underrated 1940s tale directed by The Shawshank Redemption filmmaker Frank Darabont. Carrey also starred in the Oscar-winning Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, before turning in a poorly received performance in the 2007 thriller The Number 23.

Will Ferrell, who first found fame on Saturday Night Live, and continued his hot streak as America’s favorite comedy star with films like Old School and Elf, experimented with drama in Woody Allen's Melinda and Melinda in 2004 and Marc Forster’s Stranger Than Fiction in 2006. He has since gone back and forth between comedy and drama, making silly comedies like Step Brothers and The Other Guys, and more independent fare like Everything Must Go earlier this year.

Another example of a great comic who has recently starred in dramas is Steve Carell. Carell first found success in 2005 both on TV with The Office and on the big screen with The 40 Year Old Virgin. He also starred in the highly acclaimed and Academy Award winning Little Miss Sunshine, in which he played a gay, suicidal uncle. Most of these actors gave brilliant performances, particularly Murray in Lost in Translation and Carrey in both The Truman Show and Man on the Moon (he portrayed deceased comic Andy Kaufman in the latter). However, the reception to their performances was mixed. Murray is the only one who received so much as an Oscar nod for his work.

There is also Adam Sandler, who was unrecognizable in Paul Thomas Anderson’s Punch Drunk Love in 2002. Sandler was also interesting in Judd Apatow’s Funny People, in which he played a foul-mouthed comedian who learns he has only months to live. It was a shrewd and dark comedy that did not achieve the same reception as Apatow’s previous, more traditional comedies like The 40 Year Old Virgin and Knocked Up. Filmmakers typically known for comedy have also given a try at dramas. In 2005, Woody Allen directed Match Point, a Dostoyevsky-ian thriller set in London. The film was a departure from the romantic comedies that made him famous, but was received well by audiences and critics. He directed another thriller in 2007, Cassandra's Dream, starring Ewan McGregor and Colin Farrell.

Currently, several funnymen are transitioning into drama. Jonah Hill, of Superbad fame, recently starred in Moneyball with Brad Pitt about the Oakland Athletics baseball team of the early 00s. The film was written by Oscar-winners Steven Zailian and Aaron Sorkin and directed by Bennett Miller. And it’s not just the gentlemen who are making waves as comics turned serious actors. Comedienne Monique won praise and an Academy Award for Precious in 2009.

What is it about seeing an actor most associated with films filled with laughter playing a role that fills you with sadness that is so intriguing? Is it because we expect him to make funny faces but instead portrays a thoughtful and solemn character? If that’s the case, then that might be the exact reason why the films receive a lukewarm reception from critics and audiences. No, the real reason the movies don’t receive the proper level of recognition is different. The real reason is that most actors are only adept to one genre throughout their careers. And when Jim Carrey shows his face in a drama, the drama people tune in, and the comedy people tune out.

The only thing is, the comedy people outnumber the drama people five to one in this country, so less people see the dramas. Or, maybe, I’m wrong. Maybe it is just very strange to see an actor who is always funny and making you laugh now try to make you feel something more emotional and complex. Maybe, we as audiences are programmed for certain kind of films and actors. Marlon Brando probably wouldn’t have made a very good comedy actor. So we probably don’t want to see Ace Ventura in a serious film either. Perhaps that is the most perplexing thing of all -- the vast psychology of the average moviegoer.

DARLING (JOHN SCHLESINGER, 1965)

Darling, UK, 1965
Dir: John Schlesinger
Cast: Julie Christie, Dirk Bogarde, Laurence Harvey

Darling is cool, and raw and cold in its depiction of sexuality, both hetero and homo. It is aided by a brilliant and witty script by writer Frederic Raphael. John Schlesinger, who later won an Academy Award for Best Director for Midnight Cowboy, directed Darling. The cast is a special one, headlined by Julie Christie, who also starred in David Lean’s epic Doctor Zhivago during her star making year of 1965. The film also stars Dirk Bogarde, as her love interest, and Laurence Harvey as a charming young London socialite.

The film won three Academy Awards in 1965 including Best Actress for Christie and Best Screenplay for Frederic Raphael, an American-born, British-educated screenwriter who would later pen Two For the Road, and most recently Stanley Kubrick’s final film Eyes Wide Shut. Darling became notorious for describing the urban way of life for London’s rich and famous.

This was precisely the time when films were radically changing across the globe. Jean-Luc Godard and Francois Truffaut in France, Bernardo Bertolucci in Italy, Roman Polanski in Poland, Milos Formas in the Czech Republic, Andrei Tarkovsky in Russia, and filmmakers like Mike Nichols and Dennis Hopper were making headlines in the United States for their radical approaches to film as well. Meanwhile, England also saw a new wave of young filmmakers who were making groundbreaking pictures such as Tony Richardson’s Tom Jones and Lindsay Anderson’s If… in addition to Schlesinger whose career in movies began in the 50s, as an actor.

Darling was his first international success as a director and it helped him land Midnight Cowboy, when Hollywood began knocking on his door. Darling features a brilliant cast, and Christie excels as a bored, young and naïve girl hungry for stardom and happiness. Released during a period known as the swinging 60s, Darling was a perfect film for its time. Raphael’s script seamlessly builds a foundation for characters that are shallow, yet vulnerable and complex. The film perfectly personifies London in the 1960s. The film says a lot about the illusions of glamour and fame that women are compelled to fulfill.

Darling is still as timely today as it was then, since there are still so many women who cling to the images and myths of ideal womanhood, and whose goals lead them to believe that social climbing will lead to happiness. Our own era has an even more all-pervasive cult of celebrity than the ‘60s did. Darling was a quasi-landmark film. It introduced to the world one of the finest stars of the 60s and 70s. It also paved the way for more provocative dramas, shooting in masterful black and white for more flavor and feel. Darling remains an underrated classic nearly 50 years after its release.

LIKE CRAZY (DRAKE DOREMUS, 2011)

Like Crazy, USA, 2011
Dir: Drake Doremus
Cast: Anton Yelchin, Felicity Jones, Jennifer Lawrence

We've all been there. We meet the right one. Then we lose them, but only for a short while, then we get back together, and then one of us fucks up and we lose each other for good. Hollywood drums up a similar tale, Like Crazy (as in “I love you like crazy"). The film is being released this weekend in select cities across the U.S. and is directed and co-written by 28-year-old Drake Doremus, who based many parts of the film on his own failed marriage experience.

It has become a tradition that the winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival receives monumental attention, including a theatrical release, and in recent years, multiple nominations at the Academy Awards. In 2006, Indie darling Little Miss Sunshine won two Oscars and grossed over a $100 million domestically. In 2009, Lee Daniels directed Precious, which earned him two Oscar nods and was one of the most critically acclaimed releases of the year. In 2010, Winter’s Bone, which also won the top prize at Sundance garnered great reviews upon release and was nominated for four Academy Awards. So it comes as no surprise that this year’s best film as voted by the Sundance jury gets its share of kudos and acclaim now that the awards seasons has begun. Like Crazy, starring Anton Yelchin and Felicity Jones as Jacob and Anna, is a typical love story told in a refreshing and intimate way.

Yelchin and Jones excel as a couple that are kept apart by immigration laws and secret affairs and they help create an absorbing and touching love story. Many parts of the film, however, were improvised. Director Drake Doremus said he often left the camera rolling for up to a half an hour at a time just to capture the two together. As the pair is torn apart by distance and time, the film grows sparser and more pained, the uncertainty between Jacob and Anna more obvious. The film also features Jennifer Lawrence, who plays Samantha, Jacob’s secretary and on again/off again girlfriend.

Like Crazy was produced far outside the Hollywood studio system for just $250,000 and surprised everyone when it became an unexpected sensation at this past year's Sundance Film Festival. The project was a true collaboration. Director Drake Doremus and Co-Writer Ben York Jones put together a 52-page outline for the movie, creating characters very loosely based on their past long-distance relationships. Once they cast Yelchin and Jones, they gave the actors room to bring the script to life with improvisation that created its own unique reality.

The film beautifully illustrates and explores the complex fragility of first love. After an impressive effort from a group of extremely talented 20-somethings, one is eager to see what the future holds for the artists and performers involved. Like Crazy might not be the most talked about movie of the year, but it is certainly one of the best films you’ll see all year.

POISON (TODD HAYNES, 1991)

Poison, USA, 1991
Dir: Todd Haynes
Cast: Edith Meeks, Evan Dunsky

The Sundance Film Festival has long been known as a breeding ground for up and coming filmmakers. It is the elite gathering of the best independent films from the U.S. and around the world. Among the festival alumni include some of the best-known filmmakers of today, such as Jim Jarmusch, Steven Soderbergh, Quentin Tarantino, Darren Aronofsky, and Christopher Nolan. Most of them rose to fame in the 1990s, which was a decade that can be characterized as being the time period when film transitioned from the emergence of the franchise movie in the 80s to an independent haven with dozens of small-studio production and distribution companies, most of which did not survive the decade other than the most successful ones like Miramax and Fox Searchlight.

In 1989, provocative, queer-themed director Todd Haynes had just finished Superstar, a 40-minute dramatization of Karen Carpenter’s life starring Barbie dolls in place of actors. The film was a big underground success, and the summer after its release, Haynes and his producer Christine Vachon began working on their first feature together, Poison, based on the novels of renowned poet and scholar, Jean Genet.

The 1990s played host to dozens of groundbreaking, and brilliant movies directed by 20-somethings with little or no money at all at hand. Haynes was wittingly or unwittingly now part of a movement. The same independent movement that would produce films like El Mariachi, Clerks, Spanking the Monkey, Welcome to the Dollhouse, Swingers, and Pi. Todd Haynes’ Poison is an excellent example of the quality of the work that was being produced during this period.

The film is told in an unconventional manner with a trio of rotating story arcs, distinguished in the credits as “Hero,” “Horror,” and “Homo.” Completely unrelated to each other, the segments deals with a different subject, in different genres. “Hero,” told in mockumentary-style, centers on a small town that is recovering from the strange disappearance of a boy who killed his father. “Horror,” the only segment shot in black and white, is an homage to 1950s paranoid thrillers about a scientist who becomes infected with a disease after drinking a potion he was working on. The final story, “Homo,” is perhaps Hayne’s most personal. It deals with a prisoner in 1940s Paris who is haunted by memories of a prison camp he was held in as a youth, where inmates was forced to perform homosexual acts of violence.

The film broke ground for not just gay-themed filmmakers, but independent artists of all backgrounds hoping to break boundaries without the fear of harsh criticism. Poison eventually won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance in 1991, but was slapped with an NC-17 rating when released in theaters, and was one of the most controversial films of the year. Following his semi-experimental debut, Haynes directed several mainstream films (or as mainstream as Todd Haynes could get) including the 2002 Oscar-nominated Far From Heaven and the HBO Mini-series Mildred Pierce earlier this year.

Hayne’s Poison, his explicit and thought provoking debut, is still a landmark in American independent cinema and an exemplary work of the New Queer Cinema of the 1990s.

MENTAL MASTURBATION PART VII

Every so often, I post a list of great films that go unrecognized with casual movie fans. Some are current, some are older, some are domestic, some are foreign, but they're all brilliant movies you should check out if you have a chance.

If a film has a * symbol next to it, that means that the selected choice is an exceptional stand out.

Lifeboat (Alfred Hitchcock, 1944)
Little Fugitive (Ray Ashley, Morris Engel, & Ruth Orkin, 1953)
Shadows (John Cassavetes, 1959)
An Occurence at Owl Creek Bridge (Robert Enrico, 1962) *
Viy (Georgi Kropachyov & Konstantin Yershov, 1967)
The Devils (Ken Russell, 1971) *
Blue Collar (Paul Schrader, 1978)
Das Boot (Wolfgang Petersen, 1981)
Streets of Fire (Walter Hill, 1984)
Return to Oz (Walter Murch, 1985)
The Woman in Black (Herbert Wise, 1989)
Begotten (E. Elias Merhige, 1990)
Quick Change (Howard Franklin, & Bill Murray, 1990)
Proof (Jocelyn Moorhouse, 1991)
Howards End (James Ivory, 1992)
The Age of Innocence (Martin Scorsese, 1993)
The Brothers McMullen (Edward Burns, 1995)
Multi-Facial (Vin Diesel, 1995)
Heavy (James Mangold, 1995)
See the Sea (François Ozon, 1997)
Cube (Vincenzo Natali, 1997)
Bella Mafia (David Greene, 1997)
Flowergirl (Cate Shortland, 1999)
Boiler Room (Ben Younger, 2000)
The Piano Teacher (Michael Haneke, 2001)
Wonderland (James Cox, 2003)
Lymelife (Derick Martini, 2008)
Tyrranosaur (Paddy Considine, 2011)
Bellflower (Evan Glodell, 2011)

THE KILLING (STANLEY KUBRICK, 1956)

The Killing, USA, 1956
Dir: Stanley Kubrick
Cast: Sterling Hayden, Marie Windsor, Elisha Cook

The Killing is a 1956 heist film written and directed by a 28-year old Stanley Kubrick. It was his first studio-funded picture and landed him acclaim from critics and peers all around. It signaled the beginning of a Hollywood career that lasted until his death in 1999.

In 1955, Kubrick was still a young filmmaker from the Bronx, and just completed a mini-featured called Killer’s Kiss. He sold it to United Artists for $75,000 and a promise that his next project would be backed by the studio. Around this time, Kubrick befriended a budding producer named James Harris. The two teamed up and decided on adapting Lionel White’s crime novel Clean Break as their first collaboration together.

Kubrick’s background was in photography, and his keen sense of visuals helped sell Killer’s Kiss. What he lacked though, was a mastery of dialogue and language. Kubrick and Harris then hired notable crime novelist Jim Thompson to help with the screenplay. Kubrick used his deep knowledge of TV character actors to compile an impressive cast that included Sterling Hayden, who later played Jack D. Ripper in Dr. Strangelove, Timothy Carey who starred in Kubrick’s next masterpiece, Paths of Glory a year later, and Joe Turkel who later played the part of the butler in The Shining almost 25 years later. Also notable among the cast is Marie Windsor, who played a devious and heartless femme fatale.

The Killing was completed and released in 1956, although it received very little campaign management from United Artists and the film ended up a flop at the box office. Kubrick, however, landed much praise from critics including Time Magazine and the trio of Harris, Kubrick, and Thompson landed an opportunity to make Paths of Glory, a powerful and visceral World War I drama starring Kirk Douglas, who was impressed with The Killing and wanted to work with the creative team behind it.

Fifty-five years later, the film’s influence and attraction is still heavy in weight. In 2011, The Criterion Collection honored The Killing with a special edition release with interviews featuring Harris, as well as a TV special with Sterling Hayden from 1984, just before his death.

The Killing tells the story of Johnny Clay, a recently released con artist who orchestrates a racetrack robbery with several employees of the track.

Modeled after Akira Kurosawa’s classic film Rashomon, the story unfolds in a unique and stylized non-linear fashion, essentially telling the same story several different times from several different perspectives. This approach would later influence many films including Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs and Steven Soderbergh’s Ocean’s Eleven.

Kubrick eventually became a force in the movie industry, scoring 13 Oscar Nominations for films such as 2001: A Space Odyssey, Barry Lyndon and Full Metal Jacket. When considering his legacy, few tend to think of his early work like Killer’s Kiss, shot entirely on location in New York City, and The Killing, one of the last, great true film noirs. Only 84 minutes in length, the film is deliberately fast-paced and consistently suspenseful until its ironic, bittersweet conclusion.

The Killing remains one of the best noir films of the 1950s. Full of surprises and great characters, it’s a highly inspired and brilliant piece of filmmaking.

WHO WAS RAÚL JULIÁ?

Who Was Raúl Juliá?

He was an actor, born in Puerto Rico in 1940. He stood out in his classroom and began theater in his teens. In 1971 he landed a role in the cult film The Panic in Needle Park, Al Pacino’s first starring role. He worked with Meryl Streep on Broadway in the 70s, and starred in the 1985 milestone independent film Kiss of the Spider Woman, which won co-star William Hurt an Academy Award for Best Actor. In 1994, he landed the antagonist role in the big screen adaptation of the popular Street Fighter video game series. He never saw the release of the movie after experiencing a stroke in the fall of 1994, just before the expected release date.

Today fans know him as many things. His most popular film role was that of the patriarch of the Addams Family in the successful Addams Family films, released in 1991 and 1993. As Gomez Addams, Julia headlined the beloved franchise, and no doubt would have spearheaded a continuation of the series had he not passed away so suddenly a year after the release of The Addams Family Values, number two film in the franchise.

Seventeen years after his death, admirers of Julia’s still reminisce about his wonderful theater days in the 60s and 70s. Others remember his bold and poignant performances in several films now regarded as classics of their time.

Born to a wealthy Puerto Rican family, Julia moved to America in 1964. By the late-60s, he was appearing on Broadway and during the 70s he was one of the biggest stars on stage, with Tony nods for his performances in Two Gentlemen of Verona (1972), Where's Charley? (1975), Threepenny Opera (1976) as well as Nine (1982), which was eventually turned into a feature film in 2009 starring Daniel Day-Lewis in the role Julia performed on stage.

Raul Julia always had a knack for playing strong, determined, and complex characters both on stage and on the silver screen. He was a pioneer for Hispanic actors, and became one of the most beloved screen stars in Hollywood. Julia spent his career performing along with some of the greatest actors of his generation, including Robert Redford, Meryl Streep, Harrison Ford, and Al Pacino. He also worked with the top filmmakers of the 70s and 80s like Francis Ford Coppola, Clint Eastwood, John Frankenheimer, Alan J. Pakula, Sydney Pollack, Paul Mazursky, and Robert Towne.

Although never making it into the mainstream realm of stardom, he sustained a busy screen career; he appeared in nine films released between 1988 and 1990. His decision to take a role in Street Fighter was an attempt to connect with a younger audience. However, during filming, he suffered a stroke and passed away in October of 1994, at the peak of his career. In an ironic twist, Julia won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a TV Miniseries, posthumously, for The Burning Season. His funeral was held in his birthplace of Puerto Rico, which was attended by thousands. He was 54 years old and left behind an unfinished legacy of work, still admired to this day.

SIX DEGREES OF SEPARATION (FRED SCHEPISI, 1993)

Six Degrees of Separation, USA, 1993
Dir: Fred Schepisi
Cast: Will Smith, Stockard Channing, Donald Sutherland

Chaos and Control. Chaos and Control.

There are times in your life when you will sit down to watch a quality drama or even a comedy, or at least expect to, because of different factors like the cast involved, the director, or the studio representing the film. Stanley Kubrick had an immense talent to make films that fall under different categories, never pigeon-holing himself in any one particular genre. You might sit down and watch Dr. Strangelove, Kubrick's classic comedy, and expect the filmmaker to be a witty intellectual with a good sense of humor. But you will be shocked when you sit down and see A Clockwork Orange, which Kubrick directed a few years later, a movie that was Rated X for its graphic violence and multiple rape scenes. You would never expect a filmmaker to make two, such contrasting works of art.

This all brings me back to the original point that sometimes you think you are in for one thing, but end up experiencing something altogether different. Sometimes you sit down to watch a movie that you don't think will scare you and you end up seeing something that absolutely terrifies you. This is the feeling I got when watching the brilliantly creepy performance in Six Degrees of Separation by actor and rapper known at the time as The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.

Of course, I'm referring to Will Smith, currently the world’s biggest movie star. An acclaimed performer (twice nominated for an Academy Award), and one of the most profitable (over $2.5 billion in lifetime grosses), Smith has grown into a global persona since the film's release. This movie, however, finds Smith in an unusual role. He play's Paul, who at first glance comes off as intelligent, kind, witty, and passionate about literature and philosophy. He stumbles into the lives of Donald Sutherland and Stockard Channing, wealthy art dealers living in the swanky NY area of the Upper East Side. He also claims to be acclaimed actor Sidney Poitier's son. As the film moves along, we learn that A. He is not related to Sidney Poitier. B. Paul is actually a gay hustler. C. He has conned many, many other married couples into letting him into their homes.

What makes Six Degrees of Separation so appealing is its star -- Will Smith. Watching the film nearly 20 years after its release, it is a different experience watching former TV actor, turned best selling rapper, turned international movie star in such an intimate and complicated role. Watching Smith playing this character is like watching him do Shakespeare. He turns in a magnificent performance.

Another bright spot in the cast is Anthony Michael Hall, who plays an MIT student who teaches Will Smith to be a proper gentleman. Sample line: “It’s not boddle-o-beer. It’s bottle of beer.” In addition to Hall, the impressive supporting cast includes Ian McKellan, Heather Graham and J.J. Abrams (creator of cult TV shows Alias and Lost).

Six Degrees of Separation, originally a stage play by John Guare, is based on a true story of David Hampton, who in the 1980s conned a group of wealthy Manhattanites out of thousands of dollars. Although Will Smith’s character, Paul, is different. He fooled people into believing his story that he was Sidney Poitier’s son, and that he went to a boarding school in Switzerland and has enjoyed a wealthy upbringing. But in reality, his character was dirt poor, probably abandoned by his parents, and found himself living on the streets, trying to hustle people in order to survive. But his character is so unique, because he is not your typical hustler. He’s not just a good talker, he possesses real intelligence and ability to adapt and change, seemingly into whatever the people he’s conning want him to be.

Sutherland and Channing’s characters, privileged parents of three, are kind but naïve, whose children despise them for their naivety and inability to connect with them. The parents long for a child who is caring and compassionate, and they find that in Paul and fall under his spell, even after they’ve realized that they’ve been deceived so heavily. The real life Paul, David Hampton, was ultimately caught and arrested in the 1980s, and served jail time in several different states. He eventually died of AIDS in 2003.

The title of the film refers to the idea that only six people on earth connect any one person. This theory, which has since entered the consciousness of popular culture was a fascinating idea two decades ago and was inspiration for a wildly successful play, as well as a brilliant film that I highly recommend you to see.

PIECES OF APRIL (PETER HEDGES, 2003)

Pieces of April, 2003, USA
Dir: Peter Hedges
Cast: Katie Holmes, Patricia Clarkson, Oliver Platt

One recent late Friday night, I decided to pop in a DVD lying around on the table where my television used to sit (it has since gone on to TV heaven). I popped it into my DVD player and sat back, relaxed, and was pleasantly surprised to find that Pieces of April is a tiny budgeted, hand held shot, independent little gem starring a load of talented actors, and helmed by a successful novelist turned screenwriter, turned director.

In just under 80 minutes, writer/director Peter Hedges, fresh off an Oscar nomination for Best Screenplay for About a Boy, managed to create a very sentimental and poignant family drama, done in a very traditionally untraditional manner. Starring Katie Holmes, Pieces of April centers on a rebellious 20-something girl who invites her family over for Thanksgiving dinner. She lives with her boyfriend, played by Derek Luke. Her mother, Patricia Clarkson (in an Academy Award nominated performance), plays her cancer-stricken mother, soon to die. They have never gotten along, and this complex mother-daughter relationship or lack thereof is at the heart of this story.

Oliver Platt, who portrays the titular April’s father, trying to hold the family together, leads a great supporting cast. Her sister is played by a wonderfully annoying Allison Pill, and rounding out the celeb-filled cast is Sean Hayes, of Will & Grace fame, who plays April’s strange neighbor.

Part of the movie’s success is that it falls into many genres and categories. It’s a food movie, for one. It’s all about food, preparing food, discussing food, eating food. Food has always been a form of bringing people together, and it is the tool used to bring this dysfunctional family together for the most important meal of the American year. It is also a Thanksgiving movie. The film is set entirely during the last Thursday of November, traditionally celebrated as Thanksgiving. The food being hastily prepared is a turkey that can’t find an oven to be cooked in, once April’s stove break down.

The screenplay was written by Peter Hedges, who also directed the film. Hedge is most famous for being the author of What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, which was turned into an acclaimed film in 1993, starring Johnny Depp and Leonardo DiCaprio.

Pieces of April was shot on a shoestring budget, less than what most small indie films are shot on. Each cast member sacrificed a significant portion of his or her usual fee to be a part of the project. The film was also shot digitally, which gives it a very realistic and urban feel to it. It was around this time that digital filmmaking had really taken off, and more and more filmmakers were given the opportunity to make their films their way with small, digitized cameras that allowed filmmakers to shoot movies on the cheap.

Pieces of April succeeds where many other simple, independent films do not. It has a warm, and affecting and well-written script. It also features a brilliant cast who managed to create a very serious film filled with humor and wit. It is the result of very fine skills and talent, and is one of the best independent films of recent years.

MIRACLE MILE (STEVE DE JARNATT, 1988)

Miracle Mile, USA, 1988
Directed by Steve De Jarnatt
Starring Anthony Edwards, Mare Winningham, Mykelti Williamson

Have you ever wondered what the consequences would be if ever there were a real full blown nuclear war? Countless films, mostly released in the 1950s and 60s told tales of “what if?” in thought provoking fashion. Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove, Sidney Lumet's Fail Safe, even Rod Serling delved into the subject in several Twilight Zone episodes. The topic wasn't covered in Hollywood for decades after the Cold War subsided in the late 60s and 70s.

The 1980s marked the return of competing nations like America and the Soviet Union. A tension-filled arms race followed with no winners and no losers. Hollywood took notice and began to start asking the ultimate question on everyone’s mind, what if it did happen? What if one country set off a nuclear bomb attack on another? This was tackled by several productions in the 80s such as the The Lathe of Heaven (reviewed on 9/09/10), The Day After and Miracle Mile, the latter of which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September of 1988.

Pulse pounding and working in real time, Miracle Mile is about a young trumpet player who shows up late to a date with the girl of his dreams and answers a chance phone call who tells him a nuclear war is set to go off in less than an hour. He struggles to explain the situation to nearby diner patrons, who naturally believe him to be a crazed loon. However, he convinces enough people to start a mini-storm of panic, while the clock slowly ticks away. The question on everyone’s mind is, of course, whether or not the phone call he received was real or just a prank.

The trumpet player was played by Anthony Edwards, only a few years before he achieved TV stardom on ER. Also starring is Mare Winningham, just years after she achieved minor stardom in the rat-pack installment St. Elmo’s Fire and Mykelti Williamson, most remembered for playing Tom Hank’s army buddy Bubba in Forrest Gump.

Originally intended as a segment in the Twilight Zone movie released in 1983, director Steve De Jarnatt battled for nearly a decade to get the film produced and released. Originally a flop at the box office, it has since gained some minor-popularity over the years. Coming in at just 87 minutes, it’s a very quick, but memorable suspense story. Miracle Mile also features a brilliant soundtrack by one of the greatest ambient music bands of the time – Tangerine Dream. The German group, most famous for electronic music, also spearheaded the soundtracks for other cult classics like Michael Mann’s The Keep and the Tom Cruise flicks Risky Business and Legend.

Set in L.A. in the middle of a sleepy night, Miracle Mile’s ending, where the audience finally finds out whether or not they’ve been hoaxed, cannot be missed. Roger Ebert described the film in his review back in 1989 as having “the logic of one of those nightmares in which you're sure something is terrible, hopeless and dangerous, but you can't get anyone to listen to you.” The question is, if such an event ever did occur, would anyone believe you?