NYFF: " The Descendants"

Michael C from Serious Film here with the closing night film of the New York Film Festival.

It is at times like this when I feel a pang of envy for those people out there who are oblivious to the world of obsessive cinephiles like myself.

These are the people who saw and loved Sideways in 2004 and went merrily on with their lives, unaware that there were folks like me waiting through an excruciating seven-year hiatus for Alexander Payne to settle on his next project. Film lovers like myself saw Sideways as the culmination of an incredible eight-year run of movies that positioned him to be this generation's answer to Billy Wilder, and who was basically alone out there making comedies for adults with intelligence, heart and wit in such strong measure.

So it is not exactly fair that The Descendants has to live up to that incredible weight of expectations. Taken on its own it is a fine piece of work. It is flawlessly acted, makes great use of location, and gathers a genuine emotional impact as it reaches its final scenes. But taken as a step in Payne's career this can't help but feel like a minor work. A solid double after a streak of home runs.

"You really don't get it, do you Dad?"The film hits a false note right at the beginning frontloading the story with a cumbersome voiceover narration it doesn't need. We are told Clooney plays Matt King, lifelong Hawaiian, husband, father of two daughters and trustee of twenty-five inherited acres of undeveloped Hawaiian paradise worth untold millions. As the film opens Matt is nearing a deal to finally cash in on all that land when a boating accident lands his wife in a coma from which she is unlikely to wake. Clooney is forced to try to make order of his messy personal life as he spreads the sad news to family and friends.

One thing that made Payne's previous work so memorable is that he creates lead characters so well drawn they have since come to completely define their type. Is it possible to think of ruthless ambition without thinking of Tracy Flick frantically jutting her hand in the air? Is there a more vivid portrait of flailing middle-aged desperation than Jack chasing Miles down the side of a hill, wine bottle in hand? Clooney's Matt King never pops in this way. He mostly seems like a pretty nice guy. Not husband or father of the year, but doing his best. He becomes focused on the revelation of his wife's infidelities, but since we never get a strong sense on their marriage pre-coma this doesn't have a lot of dramatic juice to it. Similarly, after a rocky start with his daughters he settles into being a decent parent. Clooney gives a characteristically strong performance, wringing as much as he can from the part, but the character simply doesn't go to any particularly surprising places. It's a very good performance, but it is exactly the very good performance we are expecting.

Sky-high expectations aside there is a lot to recommend about The Descendants, the great cast first and foremost. Shailene Woodley is every bit Clooney's equal in the role of the eldest, rebellious King daughter. I would not be surprised to hear her name among the year's supporting actresses nominees. And in brief supporting turns Robert Forster and Judy Greer nail their scenes in a big way, creating the film's strongest moments. Memo to Hollywood casting agents who didn't get it the first time Tarantino sent it in 1998: Put Robert Forster in everything.

Clooney & Screen Daughters

Even the great Billy Wilder was capable of following up the back-to-back masterpieces of Some Like it Hot and The Apartment with a turkey like Irma la Douce. The Descendants is not a mistep anywhere near that egregious. It is a good, occasionally very good, drama with some well-earned laughs and emotional payoffs that stick well enough that you forgive the film's shortcomings. Yet, nothing in the film excited me as much as the knowledge that Payne is already working on his next directorial effort, due in 2012.

Previously on NYFF
The Artist finds another mega-fan in Nathaniel.
The Skin I Live In burrows under Michael's.
Goodbye First Love whispers its pain to Kurt.
Party of Shame Nathaniel drops Fassbender's magic name.
Hugo is under construction but Nathaniel likes the blueprint.
My Week With Marilyn entertains Nathaniel only when its On Set With Marilyn. 

...and many more!

Yes, No, Maybe So: "The Descendants"

Robert (author of Distant Relatives) here, taking a look at the trailer for the new Alexander Payne film The Descendants, and pondeing Yes, No, Maybe So.

Do you remember what you were doing in 2004? Perhaps sometime around when Massachusetts was performing its first legal gay marriage, Friends was going off the air for good, and George W. Bush was being elected to his second term as President you watched Sideways and thought that this Alexander Payne fellow was really hitting his stride as a director of intelligent comedies. If you, like me, were a fan, you didn't expect to have to wait seven years for another dose.

While Payne has been out of the director's chair for that long time, his influence has been undeniable. Darkly comedic slice-of-life films about men living lives of quiet desperation, while always present in the cinematic landscape, are starting to feel more and more like Payne knockoffs. Films like The Weather Man, Dan in Real Life, Lars and the Real Girl, or Smart People have attempted to capture some of that magic with varying results.

Now that we have our first look at the trailer for his latest, which teams the director with George Clooney as a man who must spread the word about his wife's recent accident, reconnect with his daughters, and come to terms with a revelation of infidelity.

YES. Alexander Payne's name was always going to be selling point enough for me. But there's also something here about George Clooney that's intriguing. Maybe it's the constant sadness behind those eyes, or that head full of gray hair. The knock against him has alway been that he only plays variations on the same character (an acting style I've never minded, if it's good enough for Bogart and Cary Grant). But comedically Clooney has always been in the realm of over the top. Here, he's doing something more subtle and my immediate sense from this trailer is that I'm watching what could be a very good, very awarded performance.

NO. Then again, Alexander Payne's name is one of the few things in the trailer that suggests you're not watching one of those many Payne copy cats. All the standard genre tropes are here. Single parent (sort of). Check. Mid-life crisis mode. Check. Relationship with kids he doesn't understand. check. There doesn't seem to be much new ground. What this could be is a good but minor work from Payne, expelling some leftover ideas, and cleansing his palate for the future. Unfortunately that's the sort of artisic luxury we only allow directors who are a bit more prolific. If you're waiting seven years between pictures, sorry we're going to demand another masterpiece.

MAYBE SO. Removed from any preconcieved expectations, there are some really nice moments here. While Robert Forster (it's always great to see him) punching an annoying kid in the face is guaranteed to please an audience, my favorite human moment is Clooney's inability to audibly say that his wife was sleeping with someone, quickly morphing the word "sleeping" into "seeing." It's small things like that which separate Payne's films from the pack, and the presence of even one in this trailer suggests that at least he hasn't forgotten it.

Your Turn: Yes, No or Maybe So? I sense that this isn't the type of trailer that sets the web ablaze with buzz. How do you feel? If you're not a Payne/Clooney fan is there anything here to stoke your interest? If you are does the trailer whet your appetite?

Links: Descendants By Poster, Friends With Benefits, Uma in Blue

Lookie. It's the first poster for The Descendants starring George Clooney in which a man in Hawaii tries to reconnect with his young daughters. Will it be an Oscar player? It sure looks good on paper with Clooney leading and Alexander Payne (Sideways) in the director's chair but time will tell. I'll update the current Oscar predictions this weekend.

Brandon Ney looks at the famous "Hush" episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer from a Zen Buddhist perspective.
Stale Popcorn on the different posters for Friends With Benefits. Australians do do it dirtier.
In Contention chooses the top ten performances in Terrence Malick films. The director tends to hog the accolades for his film but that doesn't mean the performances aren't top notch.

Off Cinema Time Out
Drawn! "Where do ideas come from?" This is true. They are elusive little buggers.
Loldwell.com A true story about coffee (I can't quit!).
Critical Condition Lady Gaga and her "Dark Idealism" -good piece on the new record.

Finally...
Go Fug Yourself investigates Uma's Blue Period at Cannes. Love this quote on the dress to your right.

It's the type of thing you can't wear unless you are SUPREMELY sure that you are smoking hot, because basically the only design element to the dress is: your boobs, your abs, your bum. Fortunately, Uma appears to be architecturally sound there.

Plus: Uma suddenly has new film projects lined up.... although I'll believe Kill Bill Vol. 3 when I see it.

And if you feel you just didn't get enough Cannes coverage, IndieWire has a huge index of writings and interviews, Cineuropa has links to film trailers and awards reactions and Sasha tries to keep an open mind about Oscar and Cannes over at Awards Daily.