Interstellar - Not Just for Nerds

Un-nerd girls and non-sci-fi freaks, don't be scared off by the title and topic of the film Interstellar. Though I might hesitate to recommend it to those friends who violently eschew all things space related, most people will find the spectacular effects, nail biting thrills, and deeply moving, personal story immensely satisfying.

The film begins by depicting our planet in the near future, depleted of the resources needed to support its citizens. To great effect, director Christopher Nolan intercuts actual footage from Ken Burns's documentary, The Dust Bowl, with fictional characters talking about the depletion of soil in America's heartland and the resulting massive dust storms. The people of Earth need solutions, but space travel has been put on the shelf decades ago and is no longer a viable option for finding a new home…or isn't it? Matthew McConaughey stars as a grounded astronaut, who, once presented with the previously discarded possibility of either finding an inhabitable home for the current population of earth, or one where the seeds of new generations can be planted, has no choice but to go with a small, dedicated team of astronauts and one empathetic robot, to evaluate the data of explorers who had gone before looking for life-sustaining planets. To fulfill such a mission, it may be necessary to leave his children with their grandfather, possibly for good. There are too many cinematic secrets within this film to tell more of the plot here, so I won't. But all the wormholes, inadvertent time travel, (something readers of my novels know I'm extremely fond of), and 2001, A Space Odyssey homages, don’t overwhelm the palpable emotion of this film. Oh, you’re gonna cry.

All of the actors, including McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain, Casey Affleck, Michael Caine, David Oyelowo, Matt Damon, Topher Grace, John Lithgow, Ellen Burstyn, young Mackenzie Foy and more, are at their finest here. I, personally, had a hard time imagining McConaughey as an astronaut―to me, he’s always kind of a cowboy―but he more than pulls it off. As he proved last year with Dallas Buyers Club, this artist is one to be reckoned with. He and the rest of the cast are simply wonderful.

I’ve heard it said, and have to agree: see Interstellar on the biggest screen possible. Please, for the love of God, don’t watch it on your IPad. If you can see it on IMAX, spring for the pricier ticket and do it. It will immerse you. I haven’t yet seen many of the big films out this fall, but this one is sure to take many, many awards. Opening Friday, November, 7th, get out there and see it.

The 2013 Screen Actors Guild Awards - An Insider's View

I promised to let my readers know which films I voted for this month as a member of the Nominating Committee for the Screen Actors Guild Awards. The decision was difficult, with hundreds of choices in some of the categories. Here are the films the Nominating Committee as a whole ultimately chose, as well as those I preferred, though not all my favorites made the final cut.

For Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role the majority of the Committee chose:
Bradley Cooper - Silver Linings Playbook
Daniel Day-Lewis - Lincoln
Denzel Washington - Flight
Hugh Jackman - Les Miserables
John Hawkes - The Sessions

Of these, I had only picked Daniel Day-Lewis. I agree the above are all good choices, but I nominated:
Jack Black - Bernie
Jake Gyllenhaal - End of Watch
Bill Murray - Hyde Park on Hudson
Christoph Waltz - Django Unchained

For Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role the Committee nominated:
Jennifer Lawrence - Silver Linings Playbook
Helen Mirren - Hitchcock
Naomi Watts - The Impossible
Marion Cotillard - Rust and Bone
Jessica Chastain - Zero Dark Thirty

I had chosen the first three, but in the other two slots I would have preferred:
Elle Fanning - Ginger and Rosa
Halle Berry - Cloud Atlas

None of my choices in the following category made it through. Nominated for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role were:
Allan Arkin - Argo
Robert DeNiro - Silver Linings Playbook
Javier Bardem - Skyfall
Phillip Seymour Hoffman - The Master
Tommy Lee Jones - Lincoln

I agree all of these actors gave excellent performances. As a matter of fact, this was the most difficult category to choose from, but I had selected:
Jim Broadbent - Cloud Atlas
James Gandolfini - Not Fade Away
Samuel L. Jackson - Django Unchained
Michael Peña - End of Watch
Christopher Walken - Seven Psychopaths

For Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role only my choices of Sally Field and Anne Hathaway were in line with the majority of the Committee. These were its nominees:
Sally Field - Lincoln
Anne Hathaway - Les Miserables
Helen Hunt - The Sessions
Nicole Kidman - The Paperboy
Maggie Smith - Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

I would have preferred:
Anna Kendrick - End of Watch
Laura Linney - Hyde Park on Hudson
Natalie Martinez - End of Watch

And I was way out of sync with my fellow SAG members for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture. They chose:
Lincoln
Silver Linings Playbook
Les Miserables
Flight
The Sessions

My choices were:
Lincoln
Argo
Cloud Atlas
End of Watch
Moonrise Kingdom

As you can see, I had a great preference for End of Watch and Cloud Atlas, two of my favorite films of the year, but they didn't end up in the final nominations at all. That's disappointing to me, especially when it comes to End of Watch. I rarely have seen such spot-on, moving performances as I did from the young actors involved in this riveting film about two cops, close as brothers, dealing with their dangerous work in a bad LA neighborhood, their love-lives, and families. I suppose Cloud Atlas wasn't to everyone's taste, but when you consider each principle actor played many different roles in the film, it was truly an amazing feat (besides the fact that the back-and-forth-in-time plot appeals to a time-travel author such as myself). Django Unchained, starring Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz and Leonardo DiCaprio, was also completely overlooked and I think that's because the producers didn't send the Committee members a DVD, and the screenings were held late in the season; therefore not as many saw it. It's also enormously violent (it is a Tarantino film after all), so perhaps it turned some members off. But there's no denying that some of the most exceptional performances of the year were in this funny, deeply emotional film. And honestly, though Les Miserables is a brilliant piece of film-making, and there's no arguing the performances were exceptional, I'm not a huge fan of musicals so I wasn't moved to nominate many from that cast.  

There were some lovely pictures out there this year that would certainly appeal to most audiences, some nominated, some not, such as Moonrise Kingdom, Hitchcock, Celeste and Jesse Forever, Bernie, The Magic of Belle Isle, Quartet, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Won't Back Down, The Intouchables, This is 40, Anna Karenina and Hyde Park on Hudson. There were a few I missed seeing during the screening process, but I heard were very good, which you might want to check out, including: Jeff Who Lives at Home, Amour, The Bachelorette, and Killing Them Softly. Those that I really didn't care for, though perhaps you will feel differently about, are: The Master, On The Road, A Late Quartet, The Grey, Magic Mike and The Paperboy.

Please check ratings before you go. Many of the films from this year are very violent or sexual. If you have a delicate stomach you won't go for Django Unchained, Cloud Atlas, End of Watch, The Impossible, Flight, or Seven Psychopaths.

My favorite movie of the year is one you won't see on the above lists of nominations because it's so Indy that the actors weren't members of the Screen Actors Guild at the time they made the film and therefore not eligible for its award. However, I believe you'll see Beasts of the Southern Wild crop up at the Academy Awards - truly the most inventive, moving, gorgeous, surprising film I saw this year, with some of the most outstanding performances from completely unknown actors.

And now, a recap: Here are my top ten favorite films of the year in order of preference:

1. Beasts of the Southern Wild
2. End of Watch
3. Moonrise Kingdom
4. Lincoln
5. Argo
6. Cloud Atlas
7. Django Unchained
8. Life of Pi
9. Hitchcock
10. Silver Linings Playbook

Whether you catch them in theaters or at home, don't miss this exciting and exceptional season in motion pictures.

What Moves You to Make Art?

I'll never forget when the song Fallin’ Slowly, from the movie Once, won the Oscar for Best Original Song - up against three, count them,  three from Disney’s Enchanted.  Glen Hansard received the award with co-writer and co-star Markéta Irglová, gleefully shouting, before he was dragged away from the mic, “MAKE ART!” I wrote those words on a piece of paper and stuck it to my fridge. I hadn't seen Once yet, but did shortly after, and found it lovely. Four years later, (May 8, 2012, to be exact) I went to see the Broadway musical version of Once to find the dialogue had been changed, several compelling characters added, and the most exquisite movement and choreography employed, elevating Once from satisfying film to transcendent theatrical experience. The romance, too, had been kicked up just enough to make the ending unbearably bittersweet. I was sobbing like an idiot just before I leapt to my feet to applaud with the rest of the audience. The making of art, in this case, had been raised to a level I’m sure Hansard never imagined when he uttered his joyful admonition at the Academy Awards.

I’ve been an actor and/or writer my whole life - have rarely known a moment when I wasn’t involved in some creative pursuit. So, though I was inspired by Hansard’s utterance, I didn’t exactly need his permission.  I find inspiration for making art in art: film, theater, music, dance, painting, sculpture, and, of course, literature. Like many artists, the greatness of others fuels me. I’m set on fire by the writers I love: Luis Alberto Urrea, Audrey Niffenegger, George Eliot, Dickens, Neil Gaiman, Shakespeare, Thomas Hardy, and of course, (you just have to read my books to see the influence) Jane Austen.  I get energy from films like Midnight in Paris, The Godfather, Taxi Driver, Moulin Rouge, Casablanca, Stranger than Fiction, 500 Days of Summer, and Becoming Jane,…which makes me think of actors whose performances move me: Anne Hathaway, Meryl Streep, Toni Collette, Colin Firth, George Clooney, Philip Seymour Hoffman.... I'm carried away by the music of Muse, The Decemberists, Patti Smith, Talking Heads, Elvis Costello, Jack White, Beethoven, Chopin and Monk. When I go to a museum I seek to absorb the passion of Van Gogh, Michelangelo, Kandinsky, Monet, Caravaggio, Rodin, Pollack and Chagall...

After seeing Once, I stumbled out of the theater into the lights of Times Square, my world rocked. Perhaps those words, “Make art,” had pushed the originators of the film on to this finer incarnation, I thought, but couldn't help wonder exactly what was the source of their creative spark. So I put hands to keyboard to ask all those artistic souls out there:  What is your Once? Who is your Anne Hathaway, your Jane Austen, which is your Midnight in Paris, your Monk, your Monet? Is it something intangible that inspires you? Is it nature or pain, or joy or spirit? What moves you to MAKE art? 

Video of Hansard's acceptance speech: (don't worry, they called  Irglová back on stage later so she could make her own remarks)

http://youtu.be/qx8yLvb0gZM

And here's the full version of Fallin' Slowly:

http://youtu.be/k8mtXwtapX4