Review of Laurel Canyon (2003) by Corey C — 30 Nov 2003

[font=Georgia][size=3][i].

film festival reviews[/i] | [b]day five[/b][/size][/font].

the main reason I enjoyed [b]Laurel Canyon[/b] as much as I did is definitely because of one woman and her name is Frances McDormand. she's one of my very favorite actresses so i'm obviously biased in that way. [b]Laurel Canyon[/b] isn't a deep, moving film about marital problems but I rather enjoyed it actually and mostly because of McDormand's free-spirited performance as the hippie rockstar mom.

it doesn't hurt that I do like the actors in the supporting cast though. Kate Beckinsale, Christian Bale, Alessandro Nivola and Natascha McElhone are all actors i've enjoyed in other films, and they are all fairly good in this film too, even if none of them give any memorable performances. I do have to give Alessandro Nivola some kudos for actually singing the two songs himself though. I was rather surprised when I saw the credits that he sung them himself since the songs were actually really good!

i'd recommend [b]Laurel Canyon[/b] to fans of Frances McDormand. she even threw in a really big surprise in the film too, which kinda had me going "whoa!". yes, it involves nudity, hehe. I didn't expect to see that at all. anyway, if you are a fan of McDormand then see it because I loved her performance in this. it's a minor movie, but I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would.

**** stars out of five.

and now for the biggest disappointment of the festival, [b]Elephant[/b], winner of this year's top prize at Cannes. having heard so many great things, I went in expecting grand things but walked out underwhelmed. while others praise it, there simply was too much dead air in this film for me. there are these long takes of characters walking around the school, and doing various things. don't get me wrong, I don't mind slow-paced films but here it felt more like van Sant was trying too hard to be artsy rather than it having much relevance. I would've much preferred if he had trimmed some of those takes, and added another character to follow around instead, or something to that extent.

it's certainly not a bad film though. it's subject matter elevates it. another high point with the film is it's terrific structure. it follows a handful of high school teenagers around, but it constantly skips in time. for example, there is one scene that is shown three times, each time from a various persons perspective and at different times through the film. it may not be dazzling like [b]Memento[/b]'s structure, but it's certainly one of the finest structured films of the year (despite it's abundance of long tedious takes). another high point is the cinematography. it may not be of Oscar-nomination quality, but it was very nicely filmed. there's a driving sequence right in the beginning of the film, and I just found the way it was shot wonderfully refreshing. the mostly amateur actors also do a fine job, but then again they're mostly just playing a variation of themselves - a teenager. not exactly that much of a stretch but none of them came off as being wooden though so thumbs up for that too.

even though I didn't find [b]Elephant[/b] to be all it was cracked up to be, it still gets a thumbs up and my warm recommendation. I certainly wouldn't discourage anyone from seeing it just because it didn't live up to my expectations.

***½ stars out of five.