Vanilla Sky

Magnolia
$26.98
The Bottom Line:

A great film that introduces and develops a half-dozen connected storylines in a thoroughly unique manner before introducing a plot element that has polarized viewers but completely fits in the context of the film, Magnolia is a modern masterpiece by PT Anderson which will stay with you long after much tamer and shorter (it is long, though very fast-moving) films are gone; don't be put off by the nay-sayers--see this stunning film.

4/4

Vanilla Sky
$1.99
DVD

Open Your Eyes
$9.98
C���sar (Eduardo Noriega) is in prison - or a hospital - it's unclear which at first. He wears a mask, and he's having sessions with a psychologist, Antonio (Chete Lara). Apparently he was a wealthy, very good-looking young man in Madrid, who after finding himself falling for his best friend's girlfriend Sof���a (Pen���lope Cruz) accepted a lift from the obsessive Nuria (Najwa Nimri) and then crashed in her car at high speed, disfiguring him horribly and apparently killing her. He tried desperately to find a way to fix his face, but now from his cell life seems all confused, and events and people jumble in a way that makes it clear that either he - or the world - is going mad. The key seems to lie in an older, foreign man who he sees at a couple of key points in the story; finding him will unlock C���sar's past, and perhaps present...

I haven't seen any other films from the Spanish director Alejandro Amen���bar, best known for this film, THE OTHERS, and THE SEA INSIDE; nor have I (yet) seen the American remake of this, VANILLA SKY, but based on this excellent, challenging narrative, I certainly will. Reminding one at times of earlier Spanish surrealists and fantasists like Bu���uel and Almod���var, and also at times having the nightmarish qualities of some of Philip K. Dick's novels of "inner space" science fiction like TIME OUT OF JOINT or MARTIAN TIME-SLIP, and some of David Lynch's work like LOST HIGHWAY, this is nonetheless a fairly original work in conception, closer ultimately to science fiction than horror or fantasy, but with a romantic-thriller feeling to it. Noriega is spectacularly good as C���sar, traversing various modes between the arrogant prettyboy, the masked felon, and the disfigured loner with utter grace; the other actors are all fine as well, though none of them have anything like the challenges that Noriega faces. Really a tour-de-force performance.

I was not quite so enthralled by the rather flat direction, which certainly doesn't descend to the point-and-shoot character of many American action films but also doesn't really ever give us breathing space or any time to contemplate and wonder about what's going on. The narrative may be propulsive, but the director pushes it faster and harder than he needs to, I think, and his neo-romantic score is fairly banal. The biggest problem for me, though, is the ending, which gives an ambivalent and challenging film an all-too-grounded and prosaic finish. Some will be happy with the wrap-it-up style, but being used to the narrative hijinks of the directors I mentioned and other modern masters like Jacques Rivette, Atom Egoyan and Raoul Ruiz - and feeling that was the direction this was going in - I guess I would have liked something more difficult or weird, something that made me say "huh"?

Still all in all, a solid thriller with some interesting metaphysical concerns, even if it doesn't really push the envelope. The DVD is pretty bare-bones but the transfer is fine.

Vanilla Sky
$9.98
VANILLA SKY is a polarizing film because it is a mainstream-Hollywood/avant-garde-art-house hybrid.

Mainstream moviegoers were largely disoriented and repulsed when Tom Cruise's latest romantic comedy blockbuster turned out to be a mind-twisting SF nightmare.

On the flip side, film-hipsters had trouble wrapping their heads around the fact that their friends-with-taste-in-movies were actually insisting that they see this incredible (but hard to describe) movie by the director of JERRY MAGUIRE. Huh??

So the lesson here? Hollywood zombies and film-snots lost out big-time because their minds and eyes were closed. Meanwhile, open-minded filmgoers around the world were treated to one of the single most surprising, affecting, and memorable movies of all time.

No hyperbole.

So, my advice to mainstream moviegoers: Go into this one knowing that it is not (just) a romantic comedy starring Tom Cruise and yet another set of (extremely) pretty faces. Expect the unexpected, take in what you can, and enjoy the ride.

Filmsnobs? Listen to your friends. Being snobs, you probably don't have many, but at least the ones you have exhibit good taste in movies.

It's something like ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND meets MULHOLLAND DR., meets eXistenZ meets DONNIE DARKO meets, well, JERRY MAGUIRE.

Um...

But what I like best about VANILLA SKY is the way it is simultaneously - and successfully - a Hollywood/anti-Hollywood film. The story exhalts our childish dreams of endless life, perfect beauty, and eternal love, even as it pounds home the ultimate futility of these grand delusions. It shows us the mindblowing beauty of living in our own perfect - and perfectly infantile - dreamworld, even as it reveals the wisdom and humanity in trading in our dreamworlds to experience the one and only real thing.

Fianlly, VANILLA SKY asks David Ames (played by Cruise) and us, his esteemed panel of observers, the ultimate question: "What is happiness to you?" I have to say that Ames' answer was something quite similar to what my own would be. And if a panel of all-seeing observers out there could ask you the same question, and read your mind for the answer, they'd probably find you answered the same basic way Dave and I did. Just guessing.

In short, this film gives you an staggering amount to feel, think, see, and talk about with your loved ones and friends (friendless films-nobs can even type about it on their blogs).

Haven't seen it yet yourself? Well, every passing minute is another chance...