“Gravity”
Directed by Alfonso Cuarón
Starring Sandra Bullock, George Clooney, Ed Harris
Drama, Sci-Fi, Thriller
90 Mins
PG-13

The true star of Gravity is not Sandra Bullock but director Alfonso Cuarón and his crew of special effects wizards. Starting off with a bang, Cuarón opens with a mind-blowing 13-minutes long uncut shot. The dance of Cuarón’s camera quickly establishes the level of head-scratching wonder that will go on to define the film. Floating from on high into tight zooms before zipping into wide pans with a solitary shot, Cuarón’s camera is one of mystifying eloquence, a whodunnit of CGI effects. His uninterrupted camera work displays an immeasurable degree of invisible precision, whether it’s drifting amongst the black canvas of space or capturing cacophonous yet silent explosions. For the miles-from-simple technological feats he has achieved here alone, Cuarón proves he is an undeniable modern master of cinema.

But that fact, in and of itself, doesn’t mean that Gravity is not without its missteps. At times, the script from Cuarón, and son Jonás feels clunky and a bit unnatural. How much this stems from English not being the Cuaróns’ native language is debatable but it at times serves to take us out of the moment, a tragic reminder that this is indeed still a film with people reading their lines. Thankfully, the film is predominantly a silent one and these tell-all bits of dialogue serve more as a relic to the disaster movies of the golden age than lofty, award-seeking self-indulgences. From that limited prowess within the script comes simplicity of storytelling that both elevates Gravity and holds it back from being truly wonderful.

The plot is simple and yet grand. On a routine procedure to install new hardware in the Hubble telescope, Dr. Ryan Stone (Bullock) and seasoned astro-pilot Matt Kowalski (George Clooney) are informed that a Russian missile designed to take out a defunct Cold War-era satellite has triggered a domino effect of hazardous space debris racing towards their vessel. Not only does this mean that everyone on Earth is losing their Wi-Fi at an alarming rate but the Explorer ship on which they arrived soon loses communications with NASA’s Houston. In moments, their ride, along with the lives of its other three crew members (who we never meet), is destroyed and Stone and Kowalski are left stranded in the inhospitality of space.

The disaster movie that follows is somewhat standard in procedure, with the hero constantly getting snagged in one ill-fated coincidence after another. At least in this case, the events surrounding the space rubble accident legitimize much of the unhappy accidents occurring left and right. Coms going down and broken mechanical pieces actually make sense in the context of thousands of shards of satellite debris orbiting like razor blades, faster than speeding bullets.

From the very opening moment of the film to the final slow pan, Cuarón has us hooked. Caught up in an onslaught of cringing tension, the audience is captive to his cinematic ride and, in many ways, it is the tired cliché used to describe lesser action films. This is the definitive movie equivalent of a roller coaster. The immersive set pieces, dexterous camera work, and a foreboding sense of disorientation prevail, making this a film that requires the biggest screen possible and actually legitimizes the 3D surcharge and the trip to the IMAX theater.

But having all the elements of larger-than-life grandeur allows Cuarón to step back at moments and let a sense of claustrophobic isolation slide in and take hold. Ironically enough, this current of claustrophobia is widely prevalent throughout the film. Considering  we’re caught in the endlessness space, it seems counter-intuitive to experience such a weighty feeling of constriction but there’s something about the tight spaces, the constantly dwindling air supply, and the hard-pressed confines of a space suit that make every moment feel trapped, like a snake worming out of its own skin. A moment of silent serenity, reminiscent of Stanley Kubrick‘s 2001, in which Bullock strips off her suit in zero gravity and hovers like a peaceful fetus, suggests more than just a nod to Kubrick. It takes aim at something deep without our psyche, supplanting the rapture of humanity’s natural state. “Is there anything more unnatural than being in space?” Cuarón asks. His fear realized, space stands in stark contrast to the human womb; it’s the anti-life.

As far as its chances go for this year’s Oscars, I count no less than seven Academy Award nominations for Gravity. First and foremost, the award for Best Visual Effects is in the bag. There’s no need to even compete at this point, as an upset in this category is about as impossible as living in space without a spacesuit. It will most certainly be nominated for both Sound categories, Mixing and Editing, and stands a good chance to take home either or both. Cuarón is also highly likely to have his name amongst the Best Directors and for great reason, what he has done here may not quite be an emotional powerhouse but its the movie magic that the Academy, critics, and movie fans love.

Bullock is sure to get a Best Actress nomination, even though it is most likely the least deserving of the bunch and she doesn’t stand much of a chance at actually winning. Best Picture is, again, surely a lock but an unlikely victory. Cinematography from Emmanuel Lubezki (Children of Men) is another likely nomination as the film is spectacularly lit even amongst such a bulk of CGI. Going even deeper, Best Score and Film Editing both hover in the cross hairs and could easily sneak in, especially if one of the above is omitted. 

Gravity is pure entertainment done right and it’s achieved with transcendent technical mastery. Seamlessly blending nail-biting moments of suspense with quiet character moments in the vacuum of space, Cuarón has achieved a rare technical feat that sometimes overwhelms its lingering emotional subplot. But more than anything, it is a staggering success and one that will be appreciated by all. Cuarón has definitely chartered a new course here, setting the effects bar higher still than films like Inception or Avatar. Gravity is simply a game changer.

A-

Follow Silver Screen Riot on Facebook
Follow Silver Screen Riot on Twitter

“Enough Said”
Directed by Nicole Holofcener
Starring Julia Louis Dreyfus, James Gandolfini, Catherine Keener, Toni Collette, Ben Falcone, Tracey Fairaway, Michaela Watkins
Comedy
93 Mins
PG-13

The passing of James Gandolfini delivered a wrecking-ball wallop to the artistic community. Those who knew him described him as being closer in nature to a teddy bear than the character he was most known for portraying – the volatile Tony Soprano. In light of this fact, his role as Albert in Enough Said is probably the most soul-bearing role he has ever portrayed. Revealing a portly puppy dog who  wants acceptance and love more than anything, this may very well be the closest we’ve ever come to truly understanding the emotional complexity residing behind Gandolfini’s soulful eyes. While it would be a touch disingenuous to call his work here a “knockout,” his performance is thoughtfully restrained and bitingly honest in every way imaginable.

To watch this film and not be transported into thoughts of what Gandolfini might have done next is difficult to skirt around but it’s a task that we, the audience, are charged with while watching. But as both a reminder of his talent and a way of saying goodbye to the man, Enough Said has more than enough to say, especially in terms of the massive talent of its two stars. 

Julia Louis Dreyfus, hot off a big win at the Emmys for her role on the hit HBO series, Veep, plays Eva, a single mother who gets tangled up in a new, complicated relationship with Gandolfini’s Albert. Having just met a new client and friend in Catherine Keener‘s poet Marianne at the same gathering where she met Albert, Eva soon comes to realize that the new man in her life is the ex-husband of the new friend in her life. Obviously, moral complications arise from her not letting either party in on her big secret as she continues to pursue both relationships with reckless abandon.

Rationalizing her role in both Albert and Marianne’s lives, Eva convinces herself that by utilizing Marianne’s weathered knowledge of Albert as a husband and lover both, she can potentially save herself some time by getting all the dirty details up front rather than having to wait around for them to bear their ugly heads. But even while using Marianne as an unknowing rat, Eva can’t really grasp the barrage of complaints as she sees Albert as a kind and funny man, regardless of his rotund stature.

At one point, Eva asks close friend Sarah, played Toni Collette, employing her homegrown Australian accent, whether her ex-husband is unlovable or if he’s just not the right person for her. Are there some people who just aren’t worthy of loving or is love just a series of calculations and miscalculations, a series of experiments towards a more perfect chemistry. It’s clear that Eva has answered her own question in the process of asking it but still continues to extract information like a CIA mole. Subtle moments like these dig deeper into the emotional subtext than can be expected from the bumbling faux-drama of the romantic comedy framework. While Enough Said is undeniably a rom-com, it’s the rare one that works.

Clearly demonstrative of the mature nature of director and screenwriter Nicole Holofcener, these heavy-hitting examinations of what makes a relationship “good” are grounded in a reality where we all live, one that posits that the familiar adage, “It’s not you, it’s me” is more than reasonable excuse for a relationship’s conclusion. Like a six-piece puzzle for children, it’s clear that some pieces just aren’t meant to fit, no matter how hard you try to jam them together.

Try though you may to make a relationship work, once you’ve finally washed your hands of it, it’s easy to see the proverbial tears in the fabric and ensuing incompatibilities set in motion from day one. As the old adage of psychology goes, hindsight is 20/20 and there’s no need to beat yourself up for it too much. Some things just aren’t meant to be but getting to that realization is a learning process in itself. We all make mistakes, Holofcener’s film says, but can we learn from them?

Thankfully, she’s been around the block enough times to actually understand the underlying message of her film enough to titillate the audience. In many regards, Dreyfus is a vehicle for Holofcener’s battling conscious – the good angel and bad angel arguing over which road is best. We feel her presence in Dreyfus and it makes for a sense of honesty uncommon for the genre. In parsing genuine feeling from stereotypical emotional arcs, Holofcener, Dreyfus, and Gandolfini have gotten to the truth of the matter rather than re-constituting freeze-dried bags of romcom tropes.

When Eva’s promising new relationship starts wearing quicker than it would under normal circumstances – her mind filled with stories of Albert’s slobbish gluttony and general immaturity – the glimmer of hope for mid-life companionship begins to flicker. We watch, silently judging Eva’s sly game and yet to chide her actions unconditionally is to say that hers is a position we could never see ourselves in. I don’t know about you, but the opportunity to unearth someone’s dirty laundry before we get in bed with them (so to speak) is one that’s hard to pass up for any reasonably damaged human being.

By putting these reasonably challenging questions on display, Enough Said feels like it has a sense of purpose. It’s abundantly evident that no one here is in it for the paycheck (particularly Dreyfus, who is worth a staggering three billion, with a b, dollars) and that this passion project is propelled by bona-fide passion. It does have moments where it drags its feet and some clunky adherence to genre clichés – a gag-worthy moment in the airport is particularly slack-lined – but those are largely overcome by the inspired chemistry between Dreyfus and Gandolfini – a woman set to continue on her string of victories and a man who will be dearly missed.

B-

Follow Silver Screen Riot on Facebook
Follow Silver Screen Riot on Twitter

“Baggage Claim”
Directed by David E. Talbert
Starring Paula Patton, Derek Luke, Taye Diggs, Jill Scott, Boris Kodjoe, Adam Brody, Jennifer Lewis, Tia Mowry-Hardrict, Affion Crockett
Comedy
96 Mins
PG-13

D+