Film Reviews
Featured rview: New York, I Love You
THE 2006 SURPRISE hit Paris, Je T’aime is a tough act to follow, and New York, I Love You suffers from inevitable comparison with its predecessor. On its own, the film is an incredibly well-done series of short films set in New York and featuring a nice array of characters but sadly it just doesn’t make an impact as incredible as its counterpart.
Paris, Je T’aime was promoted simply as a collection of “Stories of love. From the city of love,” when it originally came out. It was made up of a series of short films with no major plot connections, aside from their setting and their theme. Contrary to expectations, the shorts didn’t limit themselves to romantic love, but also included friendships, exes, parents, and children, and one woman’s love of the city for which the film was named.
The film featured a long list of talented filmmakers, notably Wes Craven, the Coen brothers, Alfonso Cuaron, and Gus Van Sant, who all acted as both writers and directors for their respective sequences. The list of actors is even longer, featuring the likes of Elijah Wood, Natalie Portman, Juliette Binoche, Steve Buscemi, Willem Dafoe, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Gena Rowlands, and many, many more.
New York, I Love You attempts to do the same thing for the city of New York as the previous film did for Paris. Its list of directors doesn’t have as many big names, but still includes Brett Ratner, Shekhar Kapur, and Mina Nair. The list of actors is nothing more than a long Hollywood round-up: Bradley Cooper, Natalie Portman, Shia LaBeouf, Christina Ricci, Ethan Hawke, Hayden Christensen, Rachel Bilson, Robin Wright Penn, Drea De Matteo, and seemingly anyone else who has ever graced the streets of Los Angeles.
Where New York, I Love You falls short is not in the acting, but in the lack of variety that made all the shorts in Paris, Je T’aime a surprise. In this version, all stories except one centre around some kind of heterosexual relationship, be it an established relationship, a budding relationship, or rekindled relationship. Most of the “surprise” elements in the film are easy to predict, although a few of them still managed to come out of the blue—such as a prostitute and a method actor. The lack of variety in the relationships, though, keeps the whole thing feeling vaguely repetitive.
As a stand-alone film, New York, I Love You could have expected rave reviews. The acting is incredible, the characters are quirky, entertaining, and sympathetic, and the setting is used to great advantage. Some shorts are absolutely amazing, including the one directed by Portman, which involves the only non-romantic relationship. Featuring Cuban dancer Carlos Acosta, the short ends with a spectacular contemporary dance sequence, and subtly examines one of the few interracial relationships as well. Other shorts, like the one featuring Anton Yelchin, are just plain amusing. De Matteo and Cooper also shine in the most erotic clip of the film, transitioning smoothly from regret to excitement over their one-night affair.
New York, I Love You is a fantastic film that would probably get better reviews if it wasn’t linked to Paris, Je T’aime. As it is, it’s just going to have to deal with being second best.
—Eleni Armenakis
Alternative Corner: AntiChrist
GRIEF, PAIN, AND despair—the film’s division into these three chapter titles perfectly describes the mood of Lars Von Trier’s latest horror flick, Antichrist.
Starring Charlotte Gainsbourg—named best actress at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival for her performance—and Willem Dafoe, the story follows a married couple that returns to their woodland cottage, Eden, to recover emotionally after the death of their son. The isolated shack, the surrounding forest, and the chronic bad weather do not create a retreat of solace, but instead an unexpected battleground.
Danish filmmaker Von Trier is considered by his peers to be one of the most daring and cutting-edge filmmakers around. The film’s handheld shots, the image distortions, the careful incorporation of digital technology, the uncanny editing, and the overall creativity and originality of the film are all stunning. Although primarily chilling and atmospheric, the storyline is interlaced with irony, providing much-needed moments of levity. For example, shortly after arriving at Eden, the couple is kept up by the clanking of falling acorns on the roof of the cabin in a relieving and comic scene.
This is not your typical horror film. Although there are some surface similarities between it and Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 classic The Shining, including the setting and the eroding sanity of the main protagonist, it is the spellbinding mixture of misanthropy, sarcasm, and sadomasochism that makes Antichrist so hard to forget.
Antichrist is playing at 9:45 p.m. on Feb. 25 and 9:40 p.m. on Feb. 28 at the Mayfair Theatre (1074 Bank St.). Tickets are $5 for members, or $9 for non-members.
—David Davidson
