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Under discussion:

Crumb  (1995)

American Splendor  (2003)

Anyone who enjoyed American Splendor would be well-advised to check out 1994's "Crumb".  The film, although a documentary, is filmed in much the same style as American Splendor, or more than likely American Splendor is filmed in much the same style as Crumb.  Irrergardless, it is a must-see. 

Harvey Crumb was the avant-garde artist behind American Splendor, and frankly the documentary film is disturbing, hilarious and goes into great depth to explain the psychologically troubled pen behind the pages of American Splendor. 

Under discussion:

A Christmas Carol  (1984)

The Muppet Christmas Carol  (1992)

I won't waste my time recapping such a well-known story.  Surely most everyone has seen at least one or two other versions of this Christmas classic, which range from the nearly unwatchable, to the cheesey to the near genius.  I hadn't seen this version untilr recently, but upon watching it I will take the risk and say it falls into the latter of the three categories. 

George C. Scott is brilliant as Scrooge, with an ominous and foreboding presence through out the movie that convinces the audience that this Scrooge will never see the err of his ways.  Scott seems to hold onto his repugnant character a little longer and a little more tenaciously than the Scrooges in many other versions, making the transformation and redemption that much more surprising and heartwarming. 

Perhaps the highlight of the film came from the three spirits that visited Scrooge through the night.  Often they are shown as purely kind and compassionate beings, interested in gently showing Scrooge the error of his ways. 

The spirits, under Clive Donner's direction play a much harsher and more malevolent role as they possess a more commanding presence, using their power and terror to get Scrooge to see his mistakes.  The spirits often becoming angry with him and his refusal to change, and strike terror in Scrooge's hardened heart.

Donner's spirits seemed to better fit Dickens' original vision of the spirits in his classic tale, and transformed the film from the benign children's tale its become to a much more serious and more meaningful film.

As much as I love 1992's The Muppet Christmas Carol, Clive Donner created a version of A Christmas Carol that I'm sure Dickens would approve of.  The dialogue is lifted nearly verbatim from the original story, and the character portrayals are outsanding and true to the feel of the original text. 

For accuracy, and faithfulness to the message and feel of Dickens' masterpiece, this film gets an A+.  The only (minor) detractors to the story being the at-times decidedly low-budget, low-tech special effects and somewhat theatrical over-dramatic acting at times.  However, George C. Scott and crew carry the story so well and engross the audieence so thoroughly that most viewers will scarcely notice.

To Live

I must admit, I was less than excited at the prospect of seeing another historical “period-piece”.  Most I have seen have left me less than awe-struck, and carry little weight or importance other than a portrayal of life in a different era.  “To Live” was an exception to the rule, to say the least.

I found myself immediately immersed into a world I had never seen and could never imagine.  An early 1940’s, poverty struck China.  A world ruled by the few elite rich lords under what amounts to a feudal system.  It is something read about in history class, but to see it first hand in such beautiful detail is an entirely different—and moving—experience.

The audience is introduced to Fugui, a young man with a serious gambling problem.  His family, once prominent and wealthy, barely has anything left but their ancestral family home where he resides with his father, mother, wife and child.  Fugui, against his wife’s wishes, heads out “one last time” to the gambling halls, in the hopes of settling his debt.  He quickly loses everything.  His house, his father, his wife, and his status in one fell swoop. 

Fugui must then start his life over as a common pauper hawking street wares, struggling to care for his ill mother.  As he settles into his new life, he slowly climbs the proverbial ladder becoming somewhat successful and making ends meet by putting on musical puppet-shows for extra income, while the Chinese Revolution sweeps across the country.  Eventually, the revolution catches up with Fugui and he finds himself swept up in its current as it is billed as a revolution for the commoner and the lower class. 

Chairman Mao rises to power, Communism takes hold, and optimism runs unbridled.  For a while, society seems to improve, an egalitarian utopia emerges, but it is not to last.  Society implodes on itself as accusations of disloyalty to the Communist party run rampant, and everyone of the old regime is imprisoned.  Society begins to fall apart as Chairman Mao’s programs begin to crumble and people, including Fugui, begin to see the effects and consequences of the untamed and unrealistic enthusiasm, and the loss of knowledge.

The film however does not end without hope.  There are several allusions to rebirth, and the rebuilding of Chinese society, and a better future to come after the fall of Communism.  The film ends somewhat abruptly, but only after a poignant metaphor by Fugui that leaves the viewer optimistic after a film filled with so much tradgedy, changing the film from  a story of non-stop tradgedy to a celebration of life and hope for the future.

Under discussion:

The Commitments  (1991)

Once  (2007)

I was skeptical about Once, after reading a very poorly written synopsis.  I was even more skeptical after the first few minutes of the film proved to be shot in first person with a shaky camcorder, with awkward dialogue and Irish accents thicker than the wool sweaters the Irish love so much.  However, I stuck with the film, and after about ten minutes found my ear adjusted to the dialogue, and fell in love with the voyeur-first-person-perspective on the quirky relationship between a vacuum-cleaner-repairman-street-musician and a czech-born-mother-pianist-flower-salesgirl. 

Hansard, plays an anonymous vacuum-repairman whom we meet playing his original songs on the street for change.  His song seems of little siginifance initially, but as the story progresses, the viewer will find his songs (actually, all of the songs), sort of present a subtext to the film, revealing the character's true thoughts and feelings that they are unable to express. 

Musical haters need not fear--there are no show tunes, no choreographed dance sequences involving spinning parasols and impromptu chorus lines, and plenty of dialogue in between tunes.  The music simply serves to fill in the gaps and the thoughts that the characters of Hansard and Marketa Irglova (Czech ex-pat flowergirl).  The relationship and the inability to express their emotions will leave the viewer frustrated, but absolutely captivated.  My viewing partner found herself screaming at the television "KISS ALREADY!" not even halfway through the film.

I don't want to give too much away, but I will say that Once is a beautiful story about a plausible human male/female relationship, and not like most seen on the silver screen. 

*spoilers below*

Ultimately, Irglova forgoes what she wants and pushes Hansard's character to follow his dreams--something I don't think he would have ever done without her pushing him and giving him the confidence he needed.  I believe Irglova realized she couldn't quite live her dream, and she saw a chance to live it through Hansard, and she had a chance to help him succeed before it was too late--as she seemed to feel it was in her case.  It is a story of a short, necessary relationship at a necessary time. Who can't relate to that?

Anyone who enjoyed "Once" should also check out 1991's The Commitments.  Another Irish film starring real Irish musicians who pursue their dreams.

Under discussion:

The Fountain  (2006)

Darren Aronofsky’s (Pi, Requiem for a Dream) award-winning and daringly-epic 2006 film, “The Fountain”, is a deeply spiritual piece centering on three men’s intertwined quests for immortality.  All three story lines run concurrently, despite the men being separated by hundreds of years in their respective journeys. 

Hugh Jackman deftly plays three main characters:  the conquistador Tomas, the neurosurgeon Tommy, and the ‘spaceman’ Tom Creo.  Audiences are first introduced to Jackman as the conquistador Tomas, who quests for Spain’s fabled Fountain of Youth—thought to be in New Spain, hidden for millennia by the Mayan civilization.  Viewers then meet present-day Tommy, a scientist racing to cure his wife’s seemingly incurable brain cancer by any means possible, even going so far as to experiment with the bark of an ancient South-American tree on a tumor in a monkey.  Finally, audiences are introduced to Tom Creo, a ‘spaceman’ drifting through the cosmos in the undefined future, accompanied by an ancient tree that sustains him on his quest for “Xibalba”, the collapsed-star realm of the Mayan afterlife.

Aronofsky seamlessly melds together Mayan, Hindu and Christian traditions of death and the afterlife, centering on the Mayan tradition of the “First Father”, a man who sacrificed himself for the creation of life and the world at large, who then was immortalized by a tree of life sprouting from him.  Similarly, Aronofsky references the Christian tradition of the “Tree of Life”; the tree Adam and Even chose to forego for the “Tree of Knowledge” and eat of its forbidden fruit, which led to their banishment from the Garden of Eden.   Throughout the movie, the tree remains an important and central symbol to all three men, perhaps most vividly illustrated by cosmos-wanderer Tom, who is floating through space with an ancient tree that possesses a life of its own, and presumably the soul of his deceased wife, Izzi Creo.

As the film progresses, the connection of the quests becomes more apparent.  Each man is struggling to “cure the disease of death” as modern-day Tom so eloquently states.  The quest is not about living forever so much as it is about staving off the inevitability of death.  Each man comes to his own final revelation.  Tomas, the conquistador is ultimately (and quite literally) consumed by his quest, giving life to lilies at the foot of the tree he quested for.  Tommy, the neurosurgeon, finds a breakthrough treatment for brain cancer in his wife’s final hours, only to find that she has already passed, his last opportunity to talk to her in life escaped while he raced to find a cure in the lab.  Tom the spaceman and his traveling companion tree, along with the ghost of his wife, finally reach Xibalba, and are assimilated into its core, where presumably they are re-birthed in the Mayan tradition.

The plot summary sounds dizzying, and make no mistake—it is.  However, Aronofsky does and admirable job of stitching the stories together, while Hugh Jackman, Rachel Weisz (Izzi Creo) and Ellyn Burstyn (Dr. Lillian Guzetti) do an outstanding job of connecting the audience to the storyline in a believable, human fashion that lends the film a necessary dose of credibility.

The Fountain is a project of so broad a scope, it is hard to imagine it could be conceived with any amount of credibility or clarity.  However, Aronofsky and his ensemble pull it off with great aplomb, leaving a breathless audience to ponder an age old question in a new light: is death the end of existence, or is death just the beginning?