SOLARIS, OSCAR TALK IS ALL GREEK AND MORE - To close out our 'Solaris' discussion... I do think a case could be made that Soderbergh did mislead Sam, and the rest of us, a little bit in making the central struggle of 'Solaris' appear to be that of Kelvin vs. Solaris -- man of reason and intellect, a psychiatrist, forced to confront something that defies all reason. I was going the same route and, like Sam, felt that Soderbergh perhaps forsakes this struggle too abruptly. The first time the fake Rheya comes, Kelvin keeps his sanity and sends her away, literally, out into space. The next time she shows up, however, he seems to succumb almost immediately to Rheya/Solaris' will. The next thing you know, he's shouting at the crew members telling them that he isn't going back to Earth without her. With all of this said, I had no problem following this "new" narrative thread, as it were. It's odd because every critic who complains about the movie says that Soderbergh reduced Tarkovsky's more poetic, philosophical film to a simple story of lost love; but as my initial post illustrates -- as misguided and confounding as it may be -- it's the larger statements the movie makes about freewill and the very nature of human existence that struck me as so fascinating, not the love story. I'm glad I could enjoy Soderbergh's vision without comparing it to Tarkovsky's, though now I am eager to pick up the new Criterion disc and scope it out. I also thought that Clooney's performance was one of his better ones, free of his usual ticks and mannerisms. I almost started to think Clooney was a good actor after 'Out of Sight' but after watching it a few more times I started to notice that he's not good so much as Soderbergh and writer Scott Frank make him seem good. Watch any scene that he's in with Don Cheadle and Steve Zahn and it's amazing how stiff and un-charismatic Clooney appears. But while Clooney may not be a great actor, he has, since the 'Batman' debacle, shown near impeccable taste, and I applaud him for that. And if Natasha McElhone doesn't get a Supp. Actress nod for her performance it's a shame. She's asked to convey the emotions of a being that isn't quite human and is filled with all sorts of memories, but none of them are her own. She's a creature, ultimately, with no freewill, no mind of her own, and somehow she finds a way to reflect this confusing state while also being incredibly sensual.

Reader Joe Horaney wrote in again with a complaint about the Oscar buzz 'My Big Fat Greek Wedding' seems to be generating. "If 'My Big Fat Greek Wedding' continues to get Oscar buzz just because it grossed over $200 million, I'll be sick," is how he put it. It's an interesting dilemma. I don't think most movie snobs like myself would say 'Greek Wedding' is one of the top 5 movies of the year, but it's also a fairly entertaining movie made outside the big studio system so it's hard not to root for it, or at least cheer it's amazing success. The Academy does love to throw in a light-hearted little comedy every year it seems, so I guess we should prepare to hear it's name mentioned when they announce the nominees.

The Movie Club next week will likely be a potpourri of whatever Sam, Eric and myself see this weekend. The only new movies opening wide are 'Empire', which I know nothing about, and 'Analyze That', and not one of us intends to see either one. I have to admit that the trailers for 'Analyze That' do seem semi-amusing, but I really did not enjoy the original and as long as Harold Ramis is directing, and he is, the movie will surely suck. The futuristic 'Equilibrium' with 'American Psycho's Christian Bale opens limited and is playing in Chicago, but the critics are really hating it -- only 20% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. Of course, the movie we all want to see is 'Adaptation', but for some reason it isn't playing in Chicago. Rotten Tomatoes lists it as opening wide so now I'm really confused. The critics, as expected, are eating it up -- 91% positive.

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RANDOM MUSINGS - Tying up some loose ends before closing out the Movie Club on 'Solaris'... * First, reader Lisa Hannon wrote in to ask, "While you're doing lists [referring to our discussion about filmmakers whose movies we will always go see], who are your favorite female directors, if any?" So I thought about it...and I thought...and I thought...and I'll be damned if I could come up with a single one. There are a number of great female editors out there, the most notable of all being Scorsese's longtime collaborator Thelma Schoonmaker, but men still dominate the directorial landscape. In fact, as this Salon article from April tells us, 96 percent of films are directed by men. In Hollywood who do we have -- Amy Heckerling? Nora 'You've Got Mail' Ephron? Penny Marshall? Thanks, but no thanks. There are quite a few Kathryn Bigelow fans out there ('Point Break', 'Strange Days'), despite the disastrous 'K-19: The Widowmaker', but I'm not really one of them and I can safely say her name alone wouldn't entice me to see a movie. On the foreign/arthouse/independent front there's Agnes Varda, Mary Harron ('American Psycho'), Jane Campion, and younger filmmakers like the Sprecher sisters, whose recent 'Thirteen Conversations About One Thing' I enjoyed while Sam and joeycotton in the Feedback Forum found it mostly annoying. But I'm either not familiar enough with the work of these filmmakers or they haven't made enough movies to warrant instant credibility. Who am I forgetting? Sam, Eric...do you have any favorite female directors? If a reader out there would like to enlighten me on the merits of a particular female director, please send me an email at: cinemascoped@attbi.com. * On Greg's Previews over at Yahoo, his poll question is: "Which of these December releases do you think has the best chance of being this year's big Oscar winner?" I point this out not because I care to even hazard a guess at the answer, but because seeing all of the choices in a row made me realize just how great December is going to be for movies. Spike Lee's '25th Hour', Alexander Payne's 'About Schmidt', Spike Jonze's 'Adaptation', Denzel Washington's directing debut 'Antwone Fisher', Spielberg's 'Catch Me If You Can', 'Confessions of a Dangerous Mind', Scorsese's long-awaited 'Gangs Of New York', 'The Hours' with an unrecognizable Nicole Kidman as Virginia Woolf, and a little movie called 'The Two Towers.' The only movie on the list I'm not excited to see is 'Chicago', the movie version of the famous Bob Fosse musical starring Catherine Zeta-Jones and Renee Zellwegger. I can't really explain why; I just know I probably won't see it until it's been out for many weeks, if at all. * Speaking of the '25th Hour', CS reader and former 'Burn Hollywood Burn' co-host Joe Horaney sent in this link to the trailer for Spike Lee's latest about the last twenty four hours a guy (Edward Norton) spends before he goes to prison for seven years for pushing heroin. David Benioff wrote the screenplay based on his own novel of the same name...well, almost. Lee dropped the "The" to make it just '25th Hour'. Joe read the book and had this reaction to the trailer: "Looks great. Definitely captured the tone of the novel and the cast is awesome. Edward Norton wouldn't have been my choice for the main character because of how he is described in the book, but he can pull it off. Will be one of Spike's better movies I'm betting." Joe went on to say that there character in the books is supposed to be "'black Irish,' dark and really good looking, the kind of guy that walks into a room and everyone notices. Ed Norton played a good sleaze in 'Rounders' for a reason; you could buy him as that. The guy described in the book sounded more like a Billy Crudup."

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MOVIE CLUB: SOLARIS
From: Eric Baker
To: Adam Kempenaar; Sam Hallgren
Subject: I Think Psych 101 Would Have Shed More Light

I agree somewhat with Adam and "Island girl's" distillation of the film, but probably more with Sam's gut reaction upon leaving the theater. I usually don't enjoy reading a number of reviews about the same movie, but this one generated such visceral reactions from everyone who wrote about it that the critical response suggested there was HOTS going on (that's Higher Order Thinking Skills for the uninitiated, and yes I got that from my 5th grade teacher). I didn't read the story either, and in this instance I'm quite glad I didn't, mainly because I like to get my entertainment by staring at something for a few hours with my mouth open. I was flipping through the channels the past week and came upon one of those "Making of the Movie: 'Solaris'"-type shows. They made a grand to-do about how, though James Cameron owned the rights to the story, Soderbergh wanted to do it so badly he came up with an entirely original treatment that blew Cameron's production company out of the water. Two items caught my attention as the over-earnest documentary continued: 1) Cameron felt his role as producer required him to stay away from the set but become hands-on once the editing work began, and 2) the studio panicked when the movie tanked in front of test audiences. I'm not suggesting we have another "Touch of Evil" here, but I wonder if this really is the picture Soderbergh envisioned. Unlike a lot of critics, I stayed with this sci-fi, and it started to work a little for me in the second half, but I thought the plot manipulations hamstrung the film. Not the Macguffins in the beginning, but the meetings with everyone at the end, and the posturing as Viola Davis' character tries to escape seemed to stray from what Soderbergh was building as an allegory to love lost. (Do you guys keep typing "Soberbergh?") I felt it was pretty clear that Kelvin's dreams were a manifestation of his guilt over his wife's death, even if it was Solaris, which is the biggest Macguffin of all, responsible for creating them. It's likely Soderbergh, or more accurately Lem, though it was ironic to cast Kelvin as a psychiatrist as he struggles with his feelings about her, but I felt it just made it that much harder to swallow. Maybe I've been reading the psychiatrist's club dissect too many of the "Sopranos" episodes on Slate. I didn't feel like the "dilemma," as Adam has couched it, was really a dilemma at all. So ultimately, in my mind, the blame has to fall to Soderbergh for creating such surface-level characters and denying the narrative access to Kelvin's point of view. Soderbergh's trademark flashbacks provided context but lacked emotional heft in a story deliberately unraveled at a snail's pace so as not to let on too much. Of course the camerawork is impeccable, and who would expect anything else from a Soderbergh film? But where did all the money go in this supposed big budget feature: Clooney's salary? Apparently there are no natural fibers in the future and everything looks like Battlestar Galactica, which really is enough to make me want to kill myself. I have to assume Soderbergh, like the aforementioned Michael Moore, makes films primarily to entertain people, meaning he has to get people to go to them first. The box office numbers are crap -- Soderbergh better be careful, lest he become more irrelevant than Woody Allen. To paraphrase Crash Davis: "You can afford to be artistic when you're making $50 million a movie."

As to directors whose work I'd see despite exhortations otherwise, Adam knocked most of mine off with Scorsese, Lynch, Sayles, Wong Kar-Wai, and the Coen Bros., though he left out Atom Egoyan and probably Garry Marshall. Adam also forgot to mention that any show produced by Dick Wolf he will dutifully watch no matter the critical washout. Of course it wouldn't be a film snob list without perennial snooze maestro Abbas Kiarostami on the list.

It sounds like we're going to be placing an increased reliance on lists during the next month, so I thought I'd just reiterate my thoughts on how I rank movies for both club writers and readers. I liken my method to Justice Potter Stewart's explanation of obscenity: "I can't tell you what it is but I know it when I see it." I make some kind of judgment after I watch a film about whether I liked it, then I try to fit it in some haphazard framework at the end of the year. Given how messy that sounds, I guess I can't blame Hollywood for withholding their Oscar contenders until December.

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MOVIE CLUB: SOLARIS
From: Sam Hallgren
To: Adam Kempenaar; Eric Baker
Subject: Solaris Reconsidered

I think I may have finally figured out what bothered me about "Solaris." It was Adam's identification of, as he calls it, the movie's "central dilemma." According to Adam, that dilemma is Kelvin's choice between returning to Earth to resume a "normal" (but loveless) life, or staying on board the ship, alone in deep space, with what, by all appearances, is his wife, recalled from the grave. I think Adam's "central dilemma" is correct, but it's not the one I recognized when I watched the film. If I were to identify the movie's "central dilemma"--as I took it to be when I watched the film--it would be something like this: when forced to choose between reason and desire in a situation that tests all of this emotional and professional faculties, how does a man use logic to defeat temptation? An entirely un-metaphysical construction on my part, I realize. Without realizing it, I had set myself up with expectations that the film had no intention of satisfying. In my mind, Kelvin was the protagonist and the planet Solaris was the antagonist. My thoughts during the whole movie: How will Kelvin defeat Solaris? And it's not that Kelvin doesn't defeat Solaris at the end that bothered me; it's that he stops trying to defeat Solaris halfway through the film. From the moment that Kelvin sends the first Rheya to her "death" in an escape pod, I was rooting for Kelvin to outmaneuver whatever it was that had incapacitated the rest of the crew. Now why did I think that? Have I been watching too many conventional sci-fi action movies? Because I became increasingly irritated as Kelvin further submits to the power of Solaris. Now that I think about it, the film is, in many ways, like a more typical (if slow-moving) protagonist/antagonist struggle -- but -- absent a third act. In a traditional format we see the following formula: in the first act, we witness our hero's physical/mental prowess when faced with various obstacles; in the second act our hero's nemesis, the antagonist, gets the better of him by exploiting our hero's weakness(es); in the third act our hero uses his superhuman strength/will to defeat the antagonist. In "Solaris" we get the first two acts, and no third act. But this formula is disappointing only if that's the formula that Soderbergh is employing. Which, according to Adam, he isn't. And I agree with him. So how did I get so off-track? I'm glad that I finally understand what kept me from enjoying the film, but I don't want to take all the blame. Eric and Adam: Did Soderbergh mislead me at all, or am I just too conventional a filmgoer to have figured out what he was up to?

On another subject, Eric asked me to explain my current obsession with Netflix, the online DVD rental service. I'm not sure how many Cinemascoped readers use the service, or have replaced their VCRs with DVD players, but, for even the casual renter of DVDs, Netflix beats Blockbuster ten times out of ten. For one thing, Netflix completely changed my renting psychology. Before Netflix, I'd go to Blockbuster, peruse the new releases, and eighty-five percent of the time I would rent something from the new release section. I might stroll through the "Blockbuster Favorites" aisles, but even if I saw something that caught my eye--an overlooked classic or an intriguing indie film--I'd probably hold onto my $4.00+ new release. I wish you could all take a look at the list of films I have rented through Netflix in the past six months. Just last week, the following films arrived in my mailbox: Fellini's "8 12," the Christian Bale/Matt McConaughey dragon epic "Reign of Fire," Ingmar Bergman's "Wild Strawberries," and the Tim Robbins Vietnam Vet warped suspense film "Jacob's Ladder" (not to be confused with "Jakob the Liar"). I've also rented "The Last Starfighter" (lots of unintentional hilarity) the original "Get Carter" with Michael Caine (a great movie), and "Godfather III" (just as bad as you remember it being). I'm not sure I would have rented any of these movies at Blockbuster, assuming they even had them. Also, depending on the volume of films you watch per week, or per month, Netflix can be an incredible bargain. Granted, I wouldn't be watching nearly as many movies if I had to rent them, but as it stands, my roommate and I spend on average about $1 per rental--based on a cost-per-month rental/cost analysis conducted by my roommate in his prodigious spare time. Compare that with Blockbuster's ever-increasing prices, and it's a no-brainer. Plus, with Netflix, there are no late fees. I know that this sounds like an advertisement; but I reap no rewards for this kind of commentary. Consider this a public service message. And why'll you're at it, rent "Klute" or "The Right Stuff" or "The Last Detail" or "The Bridge Over The River Kwai" or Michael Mann's "Thief" with James Caan. All great films that I rented through Netflix that I would never have rented from Blockbuster. A single warning: not all of the chances you end up taking on films pay off. For every diamond in the rough, there are two or three stinkers: turns out “The Stunt Man” is only a cult classic for people who love terrible movies.

MOVIE CLUB: SOLARIS
From: Adam Kempenaar
To: Sam Hallgren; Eric Baker
Subject: Should have paid more attention in Existential Philosophy

Before commenting specifically on Steven Soderbergh's 'Solaris', I want to mention right off the top that I have not seen Andrei Tarkovsky's 1972 version, nor have I read Stanislaw Lem's book (1961). I've gathered from reading various sources that Soderbergh's rendition is closer to the book than Tarkovsky's while also being a lot less confusing. If this is true, I can't imagine how negatively Sam would react to the original. (A 2-disc Criterion Collection DVD comes out today.) Sam faults the current 'Solaris' for lacking specifics and for raising questions that it can't or won't answer -- “What is Solaris?”; “How should we get rid of the "visitors?" “How dangerous are the "visitors?" -- but one of the reasons I enjoyed the movie so much is precisely because these questions were left open for interpretation. These are the kind of questions that a standard, plot-driven sci-fi movie would try to answer, but for Soderbergh (and I'm guessing Lem and Tarkovsky) these issues are merely MacGuffins, plot means to a much larger end. The movie isn't concerned with trying to explain why this strange planet is somehow able to interpret one's dreams and actually produce a flesh and blood version of someone close to the dreamer. It is, as Sam says, "a story of relationships, loss, and the psychology of mourning and forgiveness," but it's also much more than that. Depending on how you interpret the ending -- which I will admit to having some confusion about -- 'Solaris' is either the ultimate exitentialist manifesto or the ultimate affirmation of God's supreme power. The movie's central dilemma is fascinating enough -- Clooney's character, Chris Kelvin, has to decide whether he would prefer to go back to Earth and resume his normal life, or exist essentially in isolation in space with someone -- something, really -- who is an exact replica of his dead wife, Rheya. Fortunately, I have yet to experience the loss of someone that close to me. But if I had, I could see this actually being a difficult decision if I was placed in a similar situation. Life on Earth without the person I love most in the world, or life with that person in a place without any typical human concerns -- no job, no mortgage payment, etc... The conundrum is that the allure of an existence without those daily concerns is also what makes it seem so frightening because our ambition and material items are what define us. Even more intriguing, however, is the way the film frames the age-old philosophical debate on freewill, an issue that we see being discussed specifically in at least one flashback during the film. The planet Solaris enables Kelvin, in a sense, to become God. As islandgirllizzie says in the Feedback Forum, Rheya is defined by Kelvin's memories of her and while Solaris may be responsible for "making" her, it is Kelvin who is responsible for "creating" her in his dreams. One could posit that what is ultimately so disarming about Rheya and the other "visitors" to the ship is that it forces Kelvin and the scientists to accept a position they are not equipped to take. Man aspires to be God, and in His absence (thanks to freewill) has not choice but to do so. Perhaps Lem's message is that Man is not quite ready.

Looking back over this I'm not sure any of it makes sense, but oh well. There's still much to discuss about 'Solaris' -- the performances, Soderbergh's signature camerawork and editing, plus Eric still hasn't chimed in yet...

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MOVIE CLUB: SOLARIS
From: Adam Kempenaar
To: Sam Hallgren; Eric Baker
Subject: Filling space

Hmm...my list of directors "whose films I will see despite any and all criticism suggesting I do otherwise?" Sam is part of my Movie Club because he consistently inspires fun little games like this one. His list is, by his own account, small -- Wes Anderson, Jim Jarmusch, Steven Soderbergh and David O. Russell, if Russell ever makes a follow-up to 'Three Kings'. My list is a bit bigger. Anderson and Soderbergh, definitely. Add Scorsese, David Lynch, John Sayles, Quentin Tarantino, P.T. Anderson, the Coen Bros., David Fincher, Woody Allen (despite the fact that he hasn't made a good film in almost 10 years and a great film in about 15, as I wrote back on 10/29) and Spike Lee. Michael Mann gets my honorable mention...which brings me to this tangent. Since we're on the subject of lists, it's worth mentioning that Sight and Sound magazine's current issue responds to criticism that their decade poll of the best films and directors neglected recent movies by publishing a new poll that focuses exclusively on films since 1978. Mann, somewhat surprisingly to me, made the list of directors at #5. The rest of the list is as follows: 1. Scorsese 2. Krzysztof Kieslowski 3. Wong Kar-Wai 4. Abbas Kiarostami 5. Mann 6. Lynch 7. Pedro Almodóvar 8. Francis Ford Coppola 9. Spike Lee 9. Ingmar Bergman. The films (in order): Apocalpyse Now (Coppola), Raging Bull (Scorsese), Fanny and Alexander (Bergman), GoodFellas (Scorsese), Blue Velvet (Lynch), Do The Right Thing (Lee), Blade Runner (Ridley Scott), Chunking Express (Wong Kar-Wai), Distant Voices, Still Lives (Terence Davies), Once Upon A Time In America (Sergio Leone) and Yi Yi (Edward Yang). I'll save commentary on these two lists for later in the week when Sam, Eric and I provide the "Official" CinemaScoped list of the best directors and films of the past 25 years.

I didn't quite finish my comments on 'Solaris' last night. Check back this afternoon for more Movie Club fun.


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MOVIE CLUB: SOLARIS
From: Sam Hallgren
To: Adam Kempenaar; Eric Baker
Subject: In space, no one can hear you wonder what the hell is going on

Steven Soderbergh belongs to a small group of directors whose films I will see despite any and all criticism suggesting I do otherwise. Wes Anderson and Jim Jarmusch are the other two; and -- if he ever directs another film -- David O. Russell would be the fourth. I have to admit that my predilection for Soderbergh and his films stems equally from his films themselves and from the commentary he provides on the DVDs of his films. Having listened to his commentary for "Sex, Lies, and Videotape," "The Limey" and "Ocean's 11," Soderberg strikes me as someone in love with the art of making films. And not just the technique of making films, but the art of storytelling that is unique to filmmaking. Soderbergh comes off on these commentaries as humble; self-critical; confident, but not cocky; and always curious -- as much a student as an auteur. Last Wednesday afternoon, on the film’s opening day, I attended a matinee of Soderberg's "Solaris.” I didn't like it. Even worse, I left the movie confused -- unsure of what I was supposed to take from it. I don't mind leaving a film confused if that is the filmmaker's intent (David Lynch may not intend for me to leave his films perplexed, but I invariably do, and that didn't keep me from enjoying "Mulholland Drive"); but "Solaris" was clearly about something -- I'm just not sure what. At its essence, “Solaris” is a story of relationships, loss, and the psychology of mourning and forgiveness. Alone, a cinematic meditation on these ideas might have been interesting; but the film itself feels plot-heavy—and yet, at the same time, lacking in specifics. I honestly think I would have been less confused -- and found the film more moving -- if I had seen “Solaris” without its unnecessarily confusing dialogue. There is something very moving about the basic story as it is told visually: melancholy man (Clooney) is called to join a mission in deep space; man arrives to find evidence of some mischief (blood stains, dead bodies, etc.); man meets eccentric crew member (a bearded, tic-ridden Jeremy Davies) who gives him absolutely no indication of what the hell is going on; man meets another crew member (Viola Davis) who is so freaked out that she won't leave her room; man goes into his room, sleeps, wakes to find a woman in his bed (Natasha McElhone); man freaks out, goes to shocking ends to remove her from the ship; man has more confusing conversations with crew members; man goes back to sleep and the same woman returns; flashbacks to his past indicate that this woman is his girlfriend/wife; etc., etc. If it weren’t for the intrusive exposition that keeps hijacking the film, the music and the visual momentum of the story would make for a seriously creepy and profoundly moving film. “What is Solaris?”; “How should we get rid of the "visitors?" “How dangerous are the "visitors?" The film offered no answers to these questions, and I left the film wishing they hadn’t been asked. I look forward to watching the film again on DVD. I look even more forward to hearing Soderbegh’s DVD commentary, so I can finally understand what the film was about. As I finish this post, I learn that Adam has provocatively names "Solaris" as one of the best films of the year. I am eager to hear his thoughts. I am even more eager to see a film that I really like. I haven't written a good review of a film since this Movie Club began...For the record, of films I saw this year, I really liked "Punch Drunk Love," "Heaven," "Roger Dodger," "The Dancer Upstairs," "The Bourne Identity," "Full Frontal" and "About a Boy." I just wanted to get that out there.

COMING SOON - I won't be able to get my comments on 'Solaris' up until tonight. But I'll leave this morsel to entice my Movie Club partners, Sam and Eric -- I think it might just be the film of the year.

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