NYLON - March 2009 - (Page 171) edited by paris 36 Writer-director Christophe Barratier (The Chorus) creates a charming fairy-tale world set in pre-WWII Paris, where the Popular Front and antiSemitism threaten to stomp out once-thriving vaudevilles and cabarets. Here, a music-hall worker (Gérard Jugnot) loses his job. But with help from fellow down-on-their-luck performers and one hopeful ingénue (radiant newcomer Nora Arnezeder), he restores a theater to its former glory in a collective bid to buy it from its menacing Fascist owner. Barratier’s affection for 1930s Hollywood—particularly Busby Berkeley’s synchronized musical spectacles—is infectious; however a tiresome foray into (fictionalized) historical subplots hinders this lighthearted, make-believe milieu. Fortunately, the impressive original tunes by Reinhardt Wagner imbue Paris 36 with momentum and elevate this amusing and romantic pastiche to a triumphant celebration of musical entertainment. BECCA RODRIGUEZ also h g showing: american violet Uplifting and self-righteous, American Violet can teeter dangerously close to Lifetime movie territory: Single mom (Nicole Beharie) takes on a dastardly D.A. (Michael O’Keefe) after being wrongly arrested in a drug raid. But it’s not all a bust. Newcomer Beharie holds her ground admirably opposite veteran Alfre Woodard, who plays the family’s stalwart matriarch. NISHA GOPALAN sunshine cleaning Struggling single mom Rose Lorkowski (Amy Adams) is new to the “crime-scene and trauma cleanup” business, and things get off to a rocky start: On day one, she encounters a severed head that forensics forgot; on day two, her tile cleaner can’t remove those really tough, really red stains. When Rose brings her younger sister, Norah (Emily Blunt), into the business, things take a brief turn for the better, drawing the specter of this family’s long-held American Dream a little bit closer. But for the Lorkowskis, like many working American families, dreams might come close, but they rarely come true. Despite the many ghosts that haunt them all—Rose, son Oscar (Jason Spevack), sister Norah, and dad Joe (Alan Arkin)—this family embraces their endless struggles. Arkin is a dependable, welcome presence, playing yet another aging salesman intent on success. He energizes the film by flitting from one get-richquick scheme to another (Popcorn! Shrimp! Popcorn shrimp!?), filling his grandson’s heart with both capitalistic fervor and melancholic regret—since the boy witnesses not only each scheme, but also its inevitable failure. Though the shadow of death permeates Sunshine, director Christine Jeffs (Sylvia) mostly opts for amusement over darkness. There are plenty of murders, suicides, and ill-timed accidents on hand, but Sunshine is that rare film able to delicately shift its tone between hilarious, morbid comedy and moving drama. And it always helps to have a secret weapon. The sunshine-y pairing of Adams and Blunt is inspired; they have a wonderfully relaxed, natural chemistry. Both are luminous, even when covered in blood. MIKE HARVKEY phoebe in wonderland Elle Fanning’s shoulders might be very small, but they carry the not inconsiderable weight of first-time director Daniel Barnz’s film Phoebe in Wonderland without so much as a waver. Fanning (who wasn’t even born when Barnz wrote his first draft of the script) plays Phoebe, a girl who longs to be Alice in her school’s production of Alice in Wonderland but who struggles to control her increasingly compulsive and errant behavior. Her mother, Hillary (Felicity Huffman), who is already frustrated at her inability to finish her book (not coincidentally, it’s about Alice in Wonderland), and father (Bill Pullman), who has just finished his, grow more frantic as Phoebe retreats further into a fantasy world populated by characters from Carroll’s story. From his opening shot—of a homemade wonderland made for Phoebe by her parents— Barnz evokes a magical feeling here and maintains it throughout the film: The dialogue glimmers with the same love of language that permeates Carroll’s masterpiece; the beguiling cinematography, rich with color, can leave you feeling as though you’re immersed in a Chagall painting. But it is the performances that leave the most lasting impression. As Mrs. Dodger, the enigmatic theater teacher, Patricia Clarkson is brilliant; newcomer Ian Colletti is a confident flash of comic relief as Phoebe’s best friend; and Huffman and Fanning are, at moments, astonishing. LC the great buck howard Law-school dropout Troy Gabel (Colin Hanks) becomes the assistant to a has-been magician desperate for a comeback. Though the story lacks in sufficient dramatic tension, the cast (including Steve Zahn, Emily Blunt, and John Malkovich as the eponymous, self-important “mentalist”) gives scene-stealing performances in writer-director Sean McGinly’s tribute to his real-life friend, The Amazing Kreskin. BR tokyo sonata Things fall apart in Tokyo Sonata, a delicate and beautiful examination of the harsh absurdities of modern Japan. Though the latest film by the hardworking Kiyoshi Kurosawa (Cure, Pulse, Bright Future) focuses on the Sasakis, a “typical Japanese family of four”, it quickly becomes clear that the Sasakis are a metaphor for Japan itself. Sonata begins with the head of the family (Teruyuki Kagawa, star of Sukiyaki Western Django) getting laid off, but hiding it from his family to save face. With tie knotted neatly and briefcase in hand, he joins countless other secretly jobless men to stand in impossibly long lines for helpings of both rice pudding and benefits. At home, things are equally out of sorts: His eldest son signs up to help America fight their war on terror; his youngest son steals money to take piano lessons; his wife’s isolation threatens to engulf her. Meanwhile, the arrival of a manic-depressive thief (The Eel’s Kôji Yakusho) brings everything to a dramatic head. Odd, austere, wry, subtle, explosive, poignant, gorgeous: Tokyo Sonata represents contemporary Japanese filmmaking at its best. MH 171
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