Dispatches from the Popcorn Stadium: Nebraska

Some people say that Alexander Payne tends to treat his Midwestern characters condescendingly. Whether it is Election, About Schmidt, or his latest film, Nebraska. They lament that he laughs at, and not with, the good, simple folk of the Heartland.

The Week Ahead: Edward R. Murrow Imagines Dragons

Well, last week mostly went off as expected, although Burn After Reading and Andrew's announcement about his favorite movies of 2013 list came out over the weekend. The one "Dispatches from the Popcorn Stadium" that didn't make it in last week was Nebraska, in part because the week ran out on Andrew. He wanted to wait until he saw the film a second time (which he did yesterday), so look for this post sometime early in the week.

My Favorite Movies of 2013: An Announcement

SPOILER: This is going to be one of them.

After a somewhat disappointing summer (that still had some great films), the fall has been absolutely wonderful for films. In addition to seeing many in the theaters, I've become acquainted with several great films via streaming, several of which never made it anywhere near the giant multiplexes of the Northwest Suburbs of Chicago*.

The DVD Case Pantheon: Burn After Reading

When trying to categorize the Coen Brothers films, two distinct categories emerge. The first group are movies that are primarily dramatic, such as Miller's Crossing, Barton Fink, No Country for Old Men, and The Man Who Wasn't There. The second group tend to be straight up comedies, such as Raising Arizona, The Hudsucker Proxy, The Big Lebowski, and O Brother Where Art Thou?. Granted, none of there movies are without some humor (even No Country for Old Men), and even the lightest of their comedies includes (imminent) hangings, suicides, and bounty hunters getting blown up by their own grenades. Arguably their greatest (and one of my favorites), Fargo, deftly straddles the line between the two groups, often coming down on the comedy side, while being far too violent to completely live there.

Dispatches from the Popcorn Stadium: Philomena

Every country has something in its past it isn't proud of. For the United States, it's the eradication of the Native Americans. For the United Kingdom, it would be the centuries of mistreatment of Ireland. And for Ireland, it would certainly have to be the Magdalene Laundries. Although not the only country to have these institutions, Ireland is the one most associated with them. The places were known for the cruelty of the nuns that ran them towards the women who lived and worked there, even going so far as to not administer pain killers or really do much to help if a birthing went wrong. Far too many women (many of which were barely older than children themselves) and their children died because of cruelty and apathy of these institutions. Amazingly, the last Irish one stayed open until 1996.

The DVD Case Pantheon: 50/50

Truth be told, I was initially disappointed that this was the first movie up in the queue for this feature. It isn't a matter of enjoying it. As it's part of this feature, it is a movie I really like. However, it just wasn't one of the movies I wanted to write about.

Watching again, I remembered exactly why it's in my pantheon. It's often funny, while occasionally painful. The performances from both the main characters and several supporting characters are pretty good. Most of all, it feels pretty real.

I say 'feels' instead of 'is' because I've never directly gone through the situation in this movie. Perhaps people who have gone through similar situations would disagree with the accuracy or tone of the film. I'd imagine the experience of dealing with such a traumatic, painful, and downright awful illness like cancer is a very singular experience, even if there are certainly similar situations they all go through. I would expect there would be some real experience brought to the movie, considering it was loosely based on the life of writer Will Reiser*.

Above all, the part of the movie that feels the most genuine is the main character's mother, played by the great Anjelica Huston. I'm not certain how my mother would react to a situation like that, but it would be pretty close to how she acts. Her character could have been played completely for easy laughs ("haw-haw, mom's be worrying and embarrassing us, amiright"), but she's not. She's a person, with her own fears, needs, and wants, and a big part of Joseph Gordon Levitt's character growth is realizing this.

Another great thing is that Levitt is not treated as a saint because he has a life threatening illness. He gets high with his chemo compatriots (the great Matt Frewer and the even greater Philip Baker Hall), he breaks up with his terrible girlfriend**, and has trouble getting it up when his pal hooks him up with a rebound girl. He doesn't ever come to some tranquil peace with his situation before the climatic surgery, and in fact never gets much beyond the anger stage.

Fortunately, the movie ends on a happy note, as Levitt survives the surgery that saved his life, he gets the girl, and Seth Rogen daub salve into his friends hideous back scar. It's a sweet victory because it feels earned. For that, I'm glad to consider it one of my favorite movies.

Up Next: Burn After Reading, then The Wrong Guy, and then our first challenger Good Night and Good Luck

*Seth Rogen, a friend of Reiser, was basically playing a fictionalized version of himself. Yes, I know he plays himself in everything he's in, but at least he does it very well in this film.
**In the span of about a year, Bryce Dallas Howard played a girlfriend that cheated on a person with cancer in this film and a awful racist queen bee in The Help. To be fair, the girlfriend character she played wasn't exactly played off as evil, just a very flawed young person who was too inexperienced to take the out she was given. At least she didn't eat a poop filled pie in this one.

The Week Ahead: There's a 50/50 shot you will Burn After Reading this in Nebraska, Philomena

First off, I apologize for the title of this weeks "The Week Ahead", but it had to be done. This is probably the last time two movies on Andrew's "DVD Case Pantheon" and two movies for "Dispatches from the Popcorn Stadium" can be used in an actual sentence like that. Just be glad I didn't try to fit Out of the Furnace in there somehow.

As you can tell from the title, this will be a big week for two current movie features. The first two entries of Andrew's "DVD Case Pantheon" will be posted sometime this week. We'll start with 50/50 on Wednesday and then Burn After Reading on Friday.