FILM REVIEW: WILD CANARIES By: Faiz No comments

A scene from Wild Canaries.

The ghosts of Gladys Kravitz

By Don Simpson

 

Even though the death of Barri (Sophia Takal) and Noah’s (writer-director Lawrence Michael Levine) downstairs neighbor (Marylouise Burke) is determined to be due to a heart attack, Barri is convinced that foul play is involved. While her boyfriend Noah is off at work, Barri’s suspicions get the better of her as she begins to snoop around their apartment building in search of clues. At first, Barri’s irrational inquisitiveness seems cute and endearing to Noah; but as her actions become more reckless, he begins to worry for her safety. In desperate need of the support that her boyfriend refuses to provide, Barri enlists their third roommate, Jean (Alia Shawkat), to assist in her investigation.

 

Levine reaches back to a seemingly dead genre, the screwball murder mystery, for his primary influences on Wild Canaries. Using The Thin Man series as one of his earliest reference points, Levine models Noah after William Powell’s Nick Charles, developing a character who is comically reserved and rational, yet despite his carefulness is also quite vulnerable. Noah is so tentative in his actions — well, except for whenever he is inebriated — that this character takes a backseat in the murder mystery to Barri. The plot of Wild Canaries could almost be explained as a modern day adaptation of Woody Allen’s Manhattan Murder Mystery (1993) — which is debatably the last legitimate entry into the screwball murder mystery cannon — with Levine playing the Woody Allen to Takal’s Diane Keaton.

 

While Noah requires definitive reason to justify sleuthing, Barri is propelled solely by instinct and intuition. The rich comedic chemistry of Barri and Noah’s juxtaposed personalities seems to be derived from the roles that Takal and Levine play in their real life marriage. Wild Canaries plays like a psychological examination of their relationship, carefully observing Takal’s intentional irrationality as the chaotic counterpoint to Levine’s oh-so-serious stoicism. By purposefully exaggerating their personality traits and the situations in which their characters find themselves immersed, Levine creates a “worst case scenario” to test the limits of their relationship. Taking the personal angle out of the equation, Wild Canaries is an intriguing-yet-humorous analysis of masculine and feminine personality traits as it studies how the two sexes can interpret the exact same situation in drastically different ways.

AFI 2011: GREEN By: Faiz No comments



A scene from Green.

The second sex

By Don Simpson

Sebastian (Lawrence Michael Levine) and Genevieve (Kate Lyn Sheil) rent a secluded country house in rural West Virginia because Sebastian has been commissioned to work on a sustainable agriculture blog. Does Sebastian have a background in agriculture? No, but he is a bookish, hyper-intelligent fellow who is wholeheartedly confident that he can hoe with the best of them.

Genevieve, who is Sebastian’s intellectual equal, is just along for the ride. She finds herself having to be entirely reliant upon Sebastian — a demeaning and degrading position for any person to be in. The backwoods of West Virginia offer no possibilities for work or entertainment; Genevieve’s only hope is that her books will keep her company while Sebastian is off toiling in the dirt.

Then, Robin (Sophia Takal) stumbles into the picture. Her primitive intellectual naiveté is no match for the patronizing couple from New York City, but Genevieve befriends Robin despite her uneducatedness. Then again, what other choice does she have? To say that Robin is gregarious and eager is an understatement; she is like a stray dog that has find found the owners that she always desired.

Genevieve and Sebastian possess a burning desire to out-smart each other — repeatedly challenging each other’s knowledge of literature, art and philosophy. The couple begins to struggle with problems in the bedroom which excites Genevieve’s imagination, prompting thoughts that Sebastian is screwing Robin.

Green comes from a uniquely feminine perspective as writer-director Sophia Takal takes on female jealousy and discusses the effect said jealousy has on personal relationships and one’s own grasp on reality. Insecurity, anxiety, and madness fester in Genevieve’s mind due to paranoia and miscommunication, and we discover that even though Genevieve’s hatred and aggression seems to be directed towards Robin, the situation really unearths Genevieve’s true feelings for Sebastian.

Takal has cited my favorite Robert Altman film — 3 Women — as an influence on Green. Both films approach female relationships — specifically female jealousy — with a certain level of obliqueness. Atmosphere and environment play an important factor in both films too. Specifically for Green, the densely forested environs are not only suffocating and ostracizing but they also lend Green a spooky and menacing horror film aesthetic. Something always appears to be lurking in the woods.