Cinema Alliance Movie Reviews

I have been goggle-eyed since I watched this film a month or so ago and it has been on my list of tasks to write a review of it. On an impulse, I checked the link for awards on the Internet Movie Database. Holy cow! (Am I ever corny!) This film has won 13 Awards and been nominated for 36 more, from  Oscars to film festivals, on aspects including camera work, acting and writing. What else is there? (Catherine Keener, of course.)

Did I happen to mention that I am in love with Catherine Keener? Yes. My forbidden desire for the work of this actress has blossomed into fandom. So at the end of this review I will suggest a few other movies featuring this fine performer.

It is not Ms. Keener, however who gets the majority of the praise, though, in this movie. Emile Hirsch plays the role of  Chris “Alexander Supertramp” McCandless so well that I cannot imagine anyone else doing it, ever. Hirsch’s performance moved me from someone who felt that “this damnfool went and got himself killed in the wilderness” to someone who felt that Chris McCandless made such a good point in living and dying that his story truly deserves to be told. They instruct, also, who fail.

At age twenty-four, Chris McCandless, just graduated from college, bright and athletic, donated his entire savings to charity and left his life behind. We follow him as he abandons his car and his family and his home. He leaves them all behind during a trip out west. He seeks to prove that he can make it all by himself, free himself from his parents support and their way of life, free himself their ways of work and marriage and possessions, just as many young people seek to do. But Chris went farther.

Chris hopped trains and hitchhiked and availed himself of the kindness of strangers. He worked every dodge he could, sometimes doing glorious dotty stuff like canoeing down the Colorado without a permit, sometimes living in a homeless shelter, but always moving to some sort of date with the wide and wild outdoors. He meets with plenty of hard knocks, but he meets people like Rainey and Jan, a couple of RV drifters, and Hal Holbrook’s fatherly Ron Franz, who help him to see to see the timeless truth that “no man is an island, every man is a part of the main[land]”.

For some people there might have been a reason to hesitate, to put down roots, but Chris McCandless sought more, as his sister’s voice, often employed to narrate, attempts to explain. Chris kept going until he hiked into the woods with a small rifle and a bag of rice to stay the winter in the Alaskan wilderness. There is little need to illustrate his trials here, as you can see them in the movie, but there is need to state that the story, told largely through the diary found with his body, makes it clear that we need other people. The more we avoid that support, the more we risk disaster. The more we seek to be alone, the more our heart grows, our mind clears, still more we see that we need other people. And for McCandless, having driven himself to a lonely, starved existence of aching clarity, how ironic his inability to cross the spring floods back to the world he so loved and missed must have seemed. How poignant and painfully sad to be destroyed by the very stubbornness that takes you to the very brightest light of realization.

Emile Hirsch is amazing in this film. He is loved by the camera whether clambering over rocks or riding the rails or very believably starving to death. Hal Holbrook joins a select list of actors who come back in the twilight of a fine career to play yet another great (Oscar nominated) supporting role. Vince Vaughn and William Hurt, both of whom are great in this story, are notably not even the best thing about the movie. Plus, Catherine Keener! I rate this movie five kayaks, so get a copy and view it.

Bonus: see Catherine Keener in Capote, The 40 Year Old Virgin, or Being John Malkovich.

–Kevin Bolshaw

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Released in 2008, Role Models follows the antics of Wheeler (Seann William Scott) and Danny Donahue played by Paul Rudd. Both men work together for an energy drink called Minotaur and go to local high schools to tell kids why they shouldn’t do drugs and why they should drink Minotaur. Rudd’s character has fallen into a rut and starts to question his life during a fit of depression while Wheeler continues to live a care free party dude lifestyle.

Eventually, Danny reaches his breaking point when his girlfriend (Elizabeth Banks) dumps him and he starts to realize that his life is just not going anywhere. Once he loses it, he takes out his frustrations at one of the high school speaking engagements and runs the company vehicle (a truck in the shape of a minotaur) into the school statue. Once the duo is caught they are given the choice of community service or jail, they opt for the service of course which lands them in an organization similar to Big Brother/Sister working with socially challenged kids.

The writing is your typical faire with a feel good ending, but hey for a film like this that’s what you want anyway. There’s a lot of fun moments along the way, most of the time when the adult characters are interacting with the kids as both kids and adults turn in some good performances. The only thing that got on my nerves was Paul Rudd’s character being a bit too dark and depressing at times. I understand that that’s who is character is, but it’s played up a bit much I thought and just starts to become a downer. If the film was a bit more serious and darker to begin with, I could see this, but given that the film is a bit more light hearted than that, the overly depressed vibe of Rudd’s character seems a bit too much of a contrast given the overall feel of the film.

The directing is ok, average, nothing special or particularly bad with the exception of the guidance given to Paul Rudd’s performance. The performances from the actors overall are good, again pretty average with the exception of Jane Lynch who always adds flair and style to any role she’s given, this film being no exception with her as the hardcore, slightly twisted organizer of the youth group.

Check it out if you happen to catch on the tube or rent the DVD if you’re looking to stock up on your Netflix queue.

reviewed by Sean McKnight