George Washington

David Gordon Green’s dreamy feature debut renowned for its swath of Terrence Malick affectations feels even more warm and inviting fourteen years later. The consciously lazy narrative of a group of rural Texan kids, black and white, co-habitating happily, and growing up impervious to the pretty bleak squalor around them, is the functional foundation for Green’s lush tonal aesthetic. Essentially the film is made up of small moments of infectious and hypnotising beauty, moments and scenes which don’t always coalesce together fluidly, but collectively whet our palette through its nostalgic filter of childlike naivete.

Snow Angels

Snow Angels (2008) dir. David Gordon Green
Starring: Kate Beckinsale, Sam Rockwell, Michael Angarano, Olivia Thirlby, Griffin Dunne

**

By Alan Bacchus

Before he even reached 30, David Gordon Green has delivered three unique and personal auteur films, “George Washington”, “All the Real Girls” and “Undertow”. Unfortunately “Snow Angels” is his first failure – a depressing small-town character film represents a new benchmark in the ‘life sucks’ genre of films.

“Snow Angels”, based on the Stewart O’Nan’s novel of the same name, is set in small town Pennsylvania. It’s a depressed environment inhabited by depressed people. There’s Annie (Kate Beckinsale), a separated single mom working a dead end job as a waitress in a crappy diner. Annie’s separated husband is Glenn (Sam Rockwell) who’s even farther down in the dumps, living with his parents, jobless and recovering from a suicide attempt. Arthur Parkinson’s (Michael Angarano) parents are also going through separation, which has him in the dumps as well. Arthur's only respite is a burgeoning high school crush with a cute wallflower Lila (Olivia Thirlby). A local tragedy sends these characters into further despair which will eventually result in violence and more tragedy.

I appreciate a little of bit depression on screen. If it provokes proper emotional response, the film has done its job. But depression has to be part of the ebb and flow of the narrative and play against emotions of joy and happiness. But in “Snow Angels” things start low and get lower and lower and lower, until in the very end the actions of the characters are so dire and destructive, it becomes an exercise in torture.

Green has an affinity for ‘regular people’ in America – the working and underrepresented classes. And in “Snow Angels” his actors deliver these natural unHollywood performances. I think everyone knows one or more people like Glenn. Sam Rockwell plays him as a man who may have been one of the popular guys in high school, and even wedded the hottest girl in school. But without drive and motivation, success in life never moved past the scope of the town. I appreciate Rockwell as an actor, but he’s a scenery-chewer and in this film his reliance on mumbling speech and ‘actor’s business’ is especially distracting. In the second half of the film when things start to go really bad, Green turns Glenn from a natural character to movie character. He’s given no less than three rambling drunkard scenes, which essentially ruin the film. Kate Beckinsale gives a fine performance as Annie. And even though she’s still stunning beneath the atrocious outfits she has to wear, she is believable as the confused mother.

The film fails in the third act when the film goes into darker places it doesn’t need to go. After the tragedy the film has an opportunity to build back up its characters. Instead they are agonizingly beaten down to such disparity the film becomes as torturous to the audience as the characters.

Snow Angels

PINEAPPLE EXPRESS

Pineapple Express (2008) dir. David Gordon Green
Starring: Seth Rogen, James Franco, Danny McBride, Craig Robinson, Gary Cole

**

“Pineapple Express” is written by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg who penned the immensely popular “Superbad”. That first film was their lifelong passion project. “Pineapple Express” feels like that other script they picked off the shelf, dusted off and quickly moved into production hot on the heals of their first major success. This one is a wild, meandering journey that lacks the discipline and focus of their first effort. Call a sophomore jinx – or, their “Mallrats”.

Seth Rogen plays Dale Denton, a process server who loves to get high. His supplier is a congenial Gen X slacker, Saul (James Franco). One day, while on a job to serve someone his papers Dale observes a mob-style murder. Although he gets away quickly he leaves behind a roach, which the drug kingpin Ted Jones (Gary Cole) uses to identify Saul. Dale and Saul suddenly find themselves on the run from the mob, fighting hand-to-hand, shooting guns and getting into car chases.

David Gordon Green, famous for his arty American indie flicks like “George Washington” and “All the Real Girls”, is a hired hand director. I applaud his effort to go mainstream and expand his horizons. Going by his previous indie feature, “Snow Angels”, a dismal dreary effort, he was a ripe for a change of pace and a little exercise of his funny bone. His direction of the action is competent but his ear for comedy is better. Other than a few quirky moments he’s languid style is invisible in this film.

A familiar face from the Gordon Green players is cast, the new soon to be ‘it’ guy, Danny McBride, who has slowly made a name for himself over the last year with “Foot Fist Way” and “Tropic Thunder”. For Green fans, you’ll recognize him as the obnoxious but loveable Bust-Ass in “All the Real Girls”. McBride plays Saul’s middleman, Red, a nave who seeks redemption for selling out his friends.

Unfortunately McBride’s presence is intermittent, and Franco and Rogen share the main stage. The duo is just not strong enough to sustain the lengthy scenes of inane babble which they either recite, mumble or shout at each other. Specifically, the lengthy car-in-the-woods scene seems to run on forever. I think it eats up about 10mins of screen time, without generating any narrative momentum. It’s only when McBride is introduced that the film completes its comic team. Franco and Rogen have some great banter but after the first act, their routine gets stale. But with McBride in the room we suddenly have a great trio.

“Pineapple Express” actually has a lot in common with “Superbad”. Both are films about real people in extraordinary situations, with “Pineapple Express” taken to the extreme. The humour is generated from the reactions of Dale, Saul and Red to their situations. Every once in a while Dale has to stop what he’s doing to question in insanity he finds himself in. It’s not a unique brand of humour (the current SNL players have a similar style), but it’s comedians like Seth Rogen who are leading this charge of self-awareness.

The final scene is the perfect way to the end the film, just a bunch of guys talking ‘about last night’. Reminiscing as if Seth and Evan would have done at the end of “Superbad”, about the crazy fucked shit they just went through. Unfortunately it all sounded better in dialogue, than what we saw on screen.

ALL THE REAL GIRLS

All the Real Girls (2003) dir. David Gordon Green
Starring: Paul Schneider, Zooey Deschanel

****

“All the Real Girls” is one of the most truthful and honest stories about love. Co-written and directed by David Gordon Green, the 27-year-old sophomore director strips away the artificiality of Hollywood romance and manages to capture the awkwardness and painful realities of real life love. Nobody’s perfect, and there is no formula or script to achieving happiness.

Paul (Paul Schneider, a young John C. Reilly) and Noel (Zooey Deschanel) are two young people in the throws of new love. Though we’re only told after the fact, Paul was a former playboy with a bad reputation for loving and leaving his girlfriends. Noel on the other hand is a virgin and naïve to sex and relationships. The romance causes conflict with Noel’s brother Tip, who happens to be Paul’s best friend. Despite this the relationship blossoms though Paul chooses to delay sex because he’s actually in love with her and wants to treat her differently than his one-night stands. But just as things are going good, an act of infidelity causes a major rift. Suddenly everything is flipped around and both characters are thrown into the deep end of emotions and forced to tread water to survive. Both Noel and Paul make bad decisions and catching up to fix them complicates things even more. Over the course of the film complexities compound each other, and the question then becomes why can’t two people who truly love each other be together?

“All the Real Girls” is a different film than say, “Garden State”; it’s certainly not as accessible and requires patience to see the whole story through. Conflict begins about half through the film, and from that point on I guarantee you’ll be completely engrossed. Green sets the mood by capturing moments in time. He often enters scenes halfway through conversation and enjoys watching and observing people doing the most banal of endeavours. Therefore often he’ll shoot with extremely long lenses at his characters, say, fixing a wheel, or brushing one’s hair, or lighting a cigarette. This is how Green establishes the reality and eschews artificiality.

Green also de-romanticizes the environment. The film was shot in North Carolina, which was also the setting and location for “Dawson’s Creek”. In many ways “All the Real Girls” is the anti-Dawson, there’s no grandiloquent pontificating, or neat life-lessons learned. But Green is not subtle about his love for his characters, for example the bowling alley scene is so simple and touching but also shamefully romantic. Though the film is beautifully shot with magic-hour light and bathed in golden browns and yellows, Green relishes the ugliness of the town. He spends more time looking at decayed rusty train tracks and dirty old cars than Dawson’s autumn leaves or peaceful rivers.

At 30 years old, Green has marked a place for himself as a distinct American independent. His other films “George Washington” and “Undertow” show an improvement and progression of maturity to his filmmaking. But “All the Real Girls” is still my favourite. The film’s preciousness is summed up in the clown scene, which, in my opinion, is one of the best stand-alone scenes of American-indie quirkiness. Enjoy.

Buy it here: All the Real Girls