Jane Heller

New York Times and USA Today Bestselling Author

Movie Day: "Inherent Vice"

Inherent Vice poster
Well, that was an interesting – or should I say “groovy” – screening at Cinema Society today. I’m a huge fan of Paul Thomas Anderson’s previous movies (“There Will Be Blood, “The Master”) and, while I’ve never been equally enthusiastic about the novels of Thomas Pynchon, I loved the idea of an LA noir tale with an A+ cast (Joaquin Phoenix, Owen Wilson, Benecio Del Toro, Josh Brolin, Reese Witherspoon, Martin Short, Eric Roberts). What could be bad?

The length of “Inherent Vice,” for one thing. Must I keep ranting about films that take over two-and-a-half hours to tell a story? Apparently so. Scenes could have been tightened up and they weren’t. On the other hand, the top critics who’ve put the movie on their Best of 2014 list praised Anderson’s ability to condense Pynchon’s novel, so what do I know?

Set in 1970, the movie begins as private eye Doc Sportello, a stoner in Santa Monica who hasn’t fully grasped that the sixties have come to an end post-Manson family, gets a visit from his ex-girlfriend who’s worried about her current boyfriend who’s gone missing. The boyfriend is a billionaire real estate developer whose wife and her stud have plotted to commit him to a looney bin and steal his money. Doc is intrigued and investigates. One trail of clues leads to another and another, and along the way we meet a recovering heroin addict-sax player (Wilson), a drug-dealing, sex-crazed dentist (Short), an LAPD detective with TV aspirations (Brolin) and many more. It’s a wild, psychedelic ride and I alternated between liking the movie and being bored by it. It didn’t help that Santa Barbara’s historic Riviera Theatre has terrible acoustics and much of the dialogue was hard to decipher.

Phoenix is wonderful as always, but Brolin stole the movie for me. He’s hilarious, truly. The movie looks great too; if Anderson doesn’t know how to shoot a film set in LA, no one does. Michael loved “Inherent Vice” and said if it hadn’t been so long it would have been his Best Film of the year. He certainly laughed a lot. Maybe he was stoned?

 

Movie Day: "her"

her-movie-poster

I had high expectations for “her” since it’s been on many critics’ top ten lists, and it didn’t disappoint. Such an interesting, thought provoking and ultra romantic concept film that also happens to be gorgeously shot and beautifully acted. Yes, it’s too long but directors these days seem to have lost the ability to edit their work.

Set in the future in downtown LA, “her” stars Joaquin Phoenix as Theodore, a lonely, sweet man who writes touching, special occasion letters for other people. His wife (Rooney Mara) has left him and he can’t move on, let along bring himself to sign the divorce papers. His only friend is Amy (Amy Adams), who lives in the same building and is going through her own marital breakup.

Into Theodore’s life comes his new computer operating system. He has the option of selecting a male or female voice for the Siri-like OS and picks a female, who calls herself Samantha. This voice emanates from Scarlett Johansson, so it’s husky and sexy and girlish all in one. Samantha is a highly intuitive OS, so she “gets” him in a way no real woman does. And they fall in love.

How this ingenious film tells their love story is unique and wonderful, and thoroughly captures the zeitgeist of how connected/disconnected we are with all the technology. Leave it to Spike Jonze, the director of “Being John Malkovich” and “Adaptation” to take us on another mind-bending trip.

 

 

Movie Afternoon: "The Master"

 Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest film may be his most polarizing. Some people loved it. Others hated it. There didn’t seem to be any in between until Michael and I saw it tonight. He was in between. There were many things – the acting, the cinematography, the post-World War II backdrop, the haunting score – that he liked. But it was too removed for him, too opaque, had too many moments where he said, “I don’t get it.”

I, on the other hand, may not have “gotten it” for its entire two-plus hours, but I was riveted. I found the story and the characters fascinating; it didn’t bother me a bit that they were unlikable, even monstrous. I went in knowing I wasn’t about to see a fairy tale.

The story of an L. Ron Hubbard-type doctor/psychologist/charlatan/entrepreneur (a perfect Phillip Seymour Hoffman) and the deeply damaged post-war vet (an amazing Joaquin Phoenix) he tries to rid of his demons, “The Master” wasn’t as coherent as Anderson’s last film, “There Will Be Blood,” but it captures the same sense that Americans are forever striving for reinvention and self-improvement.

I couldn’t stop thinking about the movie for hours after I left the theater, especially Phoenix’s performance. He became that character – the slumped shoulders, the shuffling gait, the wild eyes. His scene in the jail is a meltdown of epic proportions.

Amy Adams was reliably good too as the power behind the throne, all sweetness on the outside and steel on the inside.

The pace of the movie is slower than we’re used to nowadays, but I was too busy squirming with tension to be bored. Which is another way of saying I’m in the “thumbs up” camp. It’s not an enjoyable experience but it’s a mesmerizing one.

 

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About Jane Heller

Jane Heller is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author. Her fourteen breezy, witty novels of romantic comedy and suspense are now entertaining millions of readers around the world, along with her two books of nonfiction.