Down River (2013) - A SADLY FORGOTTEN FILM

Pearl (Helen Shaver), an older woman struggling with sickness, mentors three young women living in her apartment complex in pursuit of their artistic dreams. The young women all deal with their own personal struggle: Aki (Jennifer Spence) is a painter unsure of her artistic merit, possessing a critical father wanting her to pursue a career in computer engineering. Harper (Colleen Rennison) is a talented singer/songwriter with a soulful voice, but relies on prescription drugs and using others to get by, and Fawn (Gabrielle Miller) struggles with getting her acting career off the ground as her fiancé urges her to start a family before they both become too old. Pearl uses her life experience to help guide them, becoming a safety net for them when the young women run into problems.

Down River is more than a film about four women at transitional stages of their lives: it is a statement about how we as humans struggle with fear of the unknown and ultimately must let go of what we can't control. Near the middle of the film, Pearl decides to go for a swim in the ocean as Aki watches her: Aki cites she doesn’t swim since the ocean is a vast and it is often unknowable what is around or beneath you—it makes her afraid to not know what lurks in the depths. Segments like these elevate the film beyond a focus of women struggling with artistic success, and tackles an underlying personal issue that each character shares in common: the fear of choice. Where will their choices take them? And whatever paths they do walk upon, will they be satisfied where they lead? This fear restricts the young women often, and Pearl, having turned 60, has led a long life comprised of many choices—good and bad—and tries to impart wisdom on Aki, Fawn and Harper so they do not live the same mistakes she made: surrendering to uncertainty and fear, for it will lead to regret rather than accomplishment.

The film works due to brilliant editing, metaphor and strong dialogue that is strengthened by a profound complexity every actress brings to their performance—especially Helen Shaver as Pearl who speaks a plethora of emotions with a single glance. Every character is strong yet flawed, and the ambiguity each carries makes them authentic, endearing and relatable as they battle seemingly insurmountable conflicts—internal and external. One would be remiss to not mention Robert Wenzek and his superb editing, intertwining each character’s arc seamlessly, never focusing too much or too little on one person and creating a pace that is pitch-perfect: the characters live and breathe onscreen due to these elements placed in perfect order.

Written and directed by Benjamin Ratner, Down River is a sterling example of a filmmaker honing all their skills and carving with a steady hand. It is a raw, frequently touching study about the fragility of life—and of the human psyche; and although the film is often heartbreaking, it ultimately paints a cheerful portrait about embracing all facets of life and ambition—even at the most dismal of times—for experiencing things, positive or negative, molds who we are as people, and to live in retreat is a willing surrender of our own success.

9/10

Conan O' Brien Can't Stop (Second Look)

I was lucky enough to recently catch a screening of Rodman Flender’s documentary Conan O’ Brien Can’t Stop. It was evident from the beginning that the title is definitely not an example of false advertising. Conan O’ Brien’s love for performing is defined by every scene, but more importantly you see a truthful and personal side of him that has been buried underneath the humor of his career. From his rigorous striving for perfection, to his frustration and exhaustion with the early happenings of his tour, to his almost unhealthy obsession with entertaining an audience, the funnyman can never be accused of slacking off creatively. He never stops to take a breather, even when performing back-stage where the only audience he has is his writing staff, friends, and family. The film also exposes the many other talents and loves of Mr. O’ Brien that even die-hard fans may not know exist.

What I enjoyed most about the documentary is how honest it is; it was very refreshing. Not only does it showcase Conan’s tour across America, but it also weaves many personal interviews with the funnyman in which he critiques his more discouraging qualities, shares concerns regarding his family life, and candidly talks about his anger involving his firing from The Tonight Show. These interviews not only act as a way of conquering his frustration, but they also give the viewer a deeper look into Conan as a person. To curb his anger, he channels that negative energy into a more positive venture. As a thank-you to his many fans that supported him through a tumultuous late-night controversy and subsequent firing, he begins work on a vivacious tour across America only two months after he was yanked off the air, aptly named “The Legally Prohibited from Being Funny on Television Tour.” The tour is therapeutic for him and allows him to expand creatively, using his frustration about the loss of his show to his advantage. The end result is an eclectic spectacle involving many passions of Mr. O’ Brien and featuring a multitude of jokes, dances, musical numbers, and many celebrity friends.

Much of the film is spent on the tour bus and back-stage where many familiar faces from his previous late-night shows are present (Andy Richter, Jack McBrayer, Jon Hamm, Jim Carrey), as well as many new faces that help him strictly behind-the-scenes. One such unfamiliar face is his personal assistant, Sona, who plays a significant role throughout the documentary and whose close relationship with Conan bubbles with mutual respect and friendship. Many of their shared moments are heart-warming and show a more personal side of Conan that’s rarely seen in his on-air antics. Oppositely, there are several scenes in which he has a mock-arrogance about him, nevertheless hinting that there is probably some truth behind some of his less-than-friendly behavior. He does it in such a playful manner, however, that his inner circle most likely knows that the things he says and does are in no way meant to be disrespectful or hurtful, but rather a way of expressing that they need to collectively work harder. I think the humor of it all could be lost on more casual fans or viewers unfamiliar with his style of comedy, who may mistakenly classify him as somewhat of a diva. However, there is plenty of footage displaying Conan’s self-criticism and his generosity to his fans that counteract the few instances that might sully his friendly reputation.

The film also shows the ups and downs of the comedy tour, from its unsure beginnings to its more evolved conclusion in Atlanta. I enjoyed the unbiased perspective Flender brought to it; scenes never feel illegitimate or catered towards boosting Conan’s ego like many celebrity documentaries often do. Everything is on display, including Conan’s exhaustion and frustration involving the tour, but this accentuates how much passion he has for performing and improving, especially when he is unsure about a particular bit not meeting expectations. And when something does work, he exhibits a childlike wonder that he describes as part of a Peter Pan complex, never wanting to grow up, doing this stuff forever. Indeed, his age plays a significant role, and he is often shown slumped on a backstage couch completely fatigued after many performances. Despite this, he still does an insane amount of meet-and-greets with anyone who comes backstage, sometimes to his own dismay. Then the next day arrives—sometimes with back-to-back shows—and it happens all over again. He puts forth the same strenuous effort every night, even organizing surprise shows on his days off, simply because he loves to make his fans smile.

At the screening I attended, there was a Q&A with Rodman Flender and Conan O’ Brien, which served as the perfect afterword to the film. Conan took many strange questions and fulfilled many requests his fans made, ranging from hugs, calling fan’s girlfriends, and allowing people to run their fingers through his famous red hair but at no point was there ever an indication that he didn’t want to be there—he actually went over the allotted time he was given much to the dismay of the theater owner—and the love for his fans is clear. He certainly didn’t have to show up to this screening, let alone for free, and I admired that about him. He also hinted that he would love to do another tour, which I found amazing considering the utter exhaustion on display following all of his shows, a testament to how much he loves to perform, even if it runs him ragged. But the most poignant segment of the Q&A was when he was answering one of the more serious and honest questions of the evening. “What do you want people to remember you for?” He responded that he hopes he’ll be remembered for doing the best with what he’s been given, and simply for being nice to people. I think the documentary reflects that statement as truthful, and I hope this desire of his never stops, allowing many more laugh-filled years to come.

Hesher (Second Look)

I am a huge fan of Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Ever since I saw his performance in Mysterious Skin, it was evident that he would become a big star. And he has. Unlike most actors who have breakout success, he still weaves in and out of the mainstream and indie worlds of film, and I’m always excited to see what new independent project he is involved with. Initially, I was excited to see Hesher,because it seemed like a role dissimilar to anything he had done before, and I was hoping it may give me the same impression that I got years ago when I saw Mysterious Skin. After seeing Hesher, I cannot fathom why I thought this was ever a possibility.

I must stress that Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s performance isn’t necessarily bad; it’s the character of Hesher that is flawed, along with most of the characters within the film. As far as performances are concerned, Levitt gives a fine performance and embodies a scumbag pretty well. But, Hesher isn’t a very deep character, his lines of dialogue are very crass and formulaic and soon you can predict what Hesher will soon be saying. I often found myself trying to complete his lines of dialogue, how he’s probably going to say something about having sex with some orifice you normally wouldn’t think. And indeed, he did and it certainly wasn’t funny the seventh and eighth time around. I was mainly taken aback by the film since I didn’t know the central character of the story was going to be a young kid, T.J., (Devon Brochu) and his struggle to cope with his mother’s death along with his depressed father, Paul (Rainn Wilson). Both Brochu and Wilson do well with the material they are given; the acting is definitely a valiant effort, although Brochu sometimes stumbles on a tight-rope of cliché (cliché intended) however, which made me question some of his acting abilities, but that’s a script issue mostly. I found his character to often be borderline annoying, but I’m not sure if this is his fault, or just my unmitigated hatred for children, but I digress. Basically, T.J. is having trouble at school, frequently picked on by a bully (not the best child actor there is), and he struggles to reclaim his family’s totaled car his mother had died in. Why he wants to be reminded of the car his mother was killed in, who knows. He bumps into Hesher along the way and soon Hesher follows him everywhere he goes and acts as his immoral compass I suppose. Hesher’s motivation to follow T.J. around is unclear, but then again, most of what Hesher does has no reasoning behind it. I suppose T.J.’s struggle to reclaim their old car, and Hesher butting heads with his family is the closest grasp of what the plot may be (in addition to a small subplot of a boyhood crush), albeit very thin and often sporadic. I’m not going to focus much more on T.J., or his father, because their story is diluted by the unexplainable antics of Hesher throughout the film, hence the title.

Juxtaposed into the “plot” is Hesher, who almost seems capable of other-worldly powers because he is often not noticed by anyone but T.J. For the first twenty minutes of the film this led me to believe Hesher was some sort of projection of T.J.’s subconscious, like a spirit-guide, or the dark side of T.J.’s soul trying to break free which would almost make more sense to be honest. But he wasn’t. Until T.J.’s father recognizes Hesher in their home smoking (he breaks in with ease after T.J. foils his squatting attempt on a construction site), it is clear he actually is in the physical realm and not a figment of T.J.’s imagination. Hesher decides to squat in T.J.’s grandmother’s home with nobody really caring, or trying to prevent it from happening, their grandmother too sweet to recognize Hesher’s crassness. This suspension of reality throughout the film, be it Hesher’s ability to apparently disappear into thin air, his ability to track T.J. wherever he is like they have some sort of telepathic link (maybe he’s Batman), or his frequent perusing through the halls of T.J.’s school, smoking and disheveled, which nobody seems to notice, none of this has a real place or explanation in the film. Unless the writers of the movie were trying to convey some sort of ham-fisted symbolism or theme throughout the film, Hesher’s character continues to fail on many levels, but mainly to really have a point, and I found myself ridiculously bored because of it. This leads me to another aspect of Hesher that I found trying, the pacing.

Hesher often progresses in bursts of tedium and the ridiculous. Normally, where a movie about the loss of a family member would try and have a scene of dramatic brevity, or perhaps a funny scene (considering the film was advertised as a comedy), it just doesn’t. There is rarely any comedic relief or an exciting element in the film to keep the viewer glued, instead it involves a bunch of sad characters that are “misunderstood” (but I think that mainly has something to do with how boring the characters are) trying to find their place in a harsh world, or at least that’s the closest conflict I could decipher. T.J. begins to develop a crush on a young woman who saves him from his schoolyard bully, and I thought the film may turn into a love story of some kind between T.J. and this older woman, Nicole (Natalie Portman), but it never really pans out, not to mention I didn’t care about it happening because of how dreadfully boring of a character she is. Natalie Portman’s talent is completely wasted in the film, and I assumed she must have been doing a favor for someone with the role she was given. You could literally remove every scene she has in the film and it would have little effect on the rest of the film besides a minor conflict between T.J. and Hesher which is very trite.

I suppose what boggles down Hesher’s pacing the most is the lack of character development. I wanted to identify or empathize with the characters on screen like most great films often allow me to do, but all of the characters seemed to have cookie-cutter indie film qualities I had seen before. They’re very sad losers, and they need some outside entity to help them cope with reality. I thought Hesher would be able to act as the opposing force to these characters but instead Hesher destroys a lot of people’s property, has nothing insightful to say, and does not care about anything or anyone around him. There is no reason driving him to do any of these things, and it allows for his acts of lunacy that could prove pretty interesting to be very nonsensical and tedious. Hesher’s gimmicks and antics wear thin very quickly. I suppose I wanted his character’s insanity to have a purpose within the story. The same can be said for T.J. who is supposed to be the protagonist of the film; I wanted to care, but I could never really find enough about him or his father that spurred me to hope they succeed. There is a decent sub-plot between Hesher and T.J.’s grandmother (the only character I really enjoyed). This is the only real part of the film that tries to have emotional weight or the audience identify with Hesher as a tortured soul instead of a sloppy redneck. He tries to connect to her through a strange metaphor about T.J. as a strong little kid, but by this point in the film it’s just too little too late. Hesher’s biggest flaw is relying on a character like Hesher to keep people interested, more time should have been spent making T.J. identifiable and likable, and then I might have enjoyed the film a bit more.

(5/10)