Although summer does not technically end for another three weeks, I am back at college and working like a dog, so, as far as I am concerned, it is over. The summertime is typically when the biggest films of the year are released – not the award winning films, but definitely the films that justify Hollywood’s bloated budgets. This was a summer of sequels – another Harry Potter, Planet of the Apes, Cars, Pirates of the Caribbean, Scream, Hangover, Fast and the Furious… not really my thing but definitely movies that you probably heard much about. My favorite two films of the summer were not sequels, they were the rarity in the summer film scene – original, highbrow auteur pieces that still managed to bring in profits. As in, the kind only Woody Allen or Terrence Malick can create.
It was a tough decade for Woody Allen. After a frighteningly prolific career, it seems as if he ran out of steam in the 00’s. I for one enjoyed most of the movies he directed in the decade, but admit they do not stack up against his classics. His newest movie, however, did. Midnight in Paris was a great film – not just “a great Woody Allen film”, but a great film overall, and one that was easily accessible to audiences. Made on a reasonably low budget with a high budget cast, Allen gets his actors to shine on the screen in ways we had not previously thought imaginable. I believe this could very well be the performance of Owen Wilson’s career. Besides the acting, the editing, screenplay, and photography are each, in their own way, perfect. Woody Allen takes us through Paris with a mastered knowledge, leaving the viewer in awe, wishing they could leave the cinema and walk these streets themselves. He has had a very tough time filming a city so well since he left New York, but Paris could easily be a new second home for him. As the film continues to sell tickets around the world, it is on track to becoming Woody Allen’s first film to make over one hundred million dollars – a fact that could allow him to continue making even more high quality films in the future.
Midnight in Paris was very nearly the best film of the summer – very nearly. However, director Terrence Malick came along
and released a film that is very likely to be the best film of the year, the Tree of Life. Malick is the opposite of Woody Allen – while Woody has made 41 films since 1966, Mallick has only made five. He’s slow and calculating, and very inaccessible to audiences. His 1998 opus The Thin Red Line alienated many people because it had no central characters – it was the story of an entire army in Guadelcanal. The Tree of Life has an even looser style. The whole film is told through memories – Sean Penn remembering his disaffected childhood of the 1950’s and his emotionally distant father. Twenty minutes into the film, Malick takes the audience back in time 16 billion years and we watch, with glorious photography, the entire history of the universe and our planet. There is really not a whole lot to say about the film, it is definitely a high concept nonverbal experience, on par with 2001: A Space Odyssey.
I saw a lot of movies this summer, including most of the blockbusters with friends, and read something about everything that came out. As far as I know, these were the two best films of the summer. If you saw something that you thought was just as good, or better, let me know, but if not please go see these movies. They are both still playing in some of the smaller theatres, and be sure to look out for both of them during awards season. The Tree of Life already has won the Palm D’Or at Cannes and is sure to win several more.
When I was a kid I used to watch Home Movies on Adult Swim, a show about kids who try to make movies with a hand held camera. I remember the main character, who was the director, saying at one point that he was going to switch roles with his friend and become the actor, because every director wants to act, and every actor wants to direct. Hollywood keeps proving this statement true. Spike Lee regularly appears in his own movies, Tarantino has done it, Kevin Smith wrote Silent Bob for himself, David Lynch acted in Twin Peaks, Martin Scorsese, Mel Brooks, Woody Allen, Fritz Lang, the list goes on of directors who have appeared in their own films. Then there are those who have had full time jobs as both actors and directors, most notably Orson Welles and Clint Eastwood. Both of them can be studied in either context, and often appear in their own work. But what I’m getting to are the actors, who make it big in Hollywood, and then try their hand at directing. These films are what interest
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