Bill Cunningham finds his Calling

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Few are lucky enough to find the one thing that makes them happy, the one thing in the world that makes you whole, that fills in the blanks. It’s a rarity to know that one driving force that gets you out of bed in the morning with gleeful exuberance. What that one thing is varies. For some it could be the love of the fabled soul mate. For others it could be painting, writing, riding horses or driving a motorcycle. For Bill Cunningham it’s the people and fashions of New York.

Bill Cunningham is a photographer for the New York Times and the subject of the 2010 documentary “Bill Cunningham New York.” Cunningham is an 83 year-old veteran of the fashion scene in New York City. He’s quirky and independent and one hundred percent devoted to his life’s passion.

The film explores Cunningham’s life and daily schedule as he rides his bicycle through the busy streets of the Big Apple. Clad in a modest blue workman’s smock, Cunningham spots the secret trends of the fashion world and highlights the brilliant creativity in the individuals walking through through the skyscraper framed streets of the bustling city. His shots are compiled and combined with a column on the trends in the city. It’s a process that starts for him at the break of dawn and carries him through to the midnight hour and beyond.

For those like myself who can hardly match my socks this obsession with fashion can seem bewildering. But the film is careful to illustrate the importance the subject holds to Cunningham and his peers. Cunningham explains why he thinks fashion is so important and whether you agree with him or not, you can tell he believes it. What’s more, countless peers of Cunningham come forward to praise his work and his keen eye for the next big thing. The film records his adoring fans and builds Cunningham into a pillar in his community.

Meanwhile, Cunningham himself remains humble and grateful. Not grateful for the praise he receives, but grateful he can be doing what drives him to a sense of completeness. His passion shows in his work and his relations with his contemporaries and colleagues. His humility presents himself from his near-impoverished home to his insistence that he’s not a great photographer at all. Cunningham claims he doesn’t really think he’s an artist, he’s an observer, a chronicler of the city that never sleeps.

The film does what few documentaries do. It gets out of it’s own way and lets its subject tell his own story. It lets us form our own opinions about the fashion industry and the strange cast of characters in Cunningham’s life. “Bill Cunningham New York” does not preach about the grandeur of the man. It shows us through interviews and candid scenes of Cunningham in action. Rather than trying to make a grand statement about some social situation or cultural icon, the film simply introduces us to a charming and peculiar man.

He’s a man I’d love to work with. There are scenes with him working with the layout designer for the New York Times that actually made me wish I was in the chair behind the computer in the designer’s place. It’s rare to find that one thing that fills your world with purpose, I think it’s rarer to be able to work with someone that has such completion and drive.

I really enjoyed the documentary not because of a subject matter that I could identify with, nor a gripping twist of events or social significance. I enjoyed the film because I enjoyed Cunningham. He’s an adorable and fascinating man, icon and artist. Though he’d never admit to it.

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3 and a half cameras out of five

Bill Cunningham New York (2010)

Director: Richard Press

Starring: Bill Cunningham

Runtime: 84 minutes

Not Rated

Two lost souls meet on islands unto themselves

The dire state of the economy has dominated the recent presidential election. Many of us have found ourselves on hard times, perhaps victims of foreclosures or lost in a sea of job-market doldrums. In such a state, it’s easy to find our selves in the shoes of the protagonist of “Castaway on the Moon.”

Kim Seung-geun (Jung Jae-young) is a man on the edge. Literally. As the 2009 South Korean film opens Seung-geun stands on the edge of a bridge overlooking the Han River. He places a final call to one of his creditors and gets the clarification he needs. His $75,000 loan has now turned into a $210,000 debt. He’s lost his job and his girlfriend. Seung-geun has nothing left to live for. So he throws himself from the bridge into the river beneath him.

Imagine his surprise when he finds himself washed up on the shore of a small island in the middle of the river. He is still within sight of the city, in fact it’s really just a short swim away. However Seung-geun’s failures in life include a failure to ever learn to swim. He’s stranded on a trash strewn preserve island. The freeway crosses over his “deserted island” but there’s no way for him to scale the concrete pylons and climb away to the safety of the civilized world he so badly tried to escape forever.

What follows is not the standard castaway film. Sprinkled with natural comic elements and an upbeat contemporary jazzy score, we see the story of Kim Seung-geun as a man ready to throw it all away redeemed by a sudden new-found love of isolation. His sand-scrawled plea “Help” changes to “Hello” as Seung-geun finds his desperate situation becoming more peaceful and preferred to the credit-card filled rat-race of modern living.

Kim Seung-geun is not alone in his isolation however. About the third of the way through the film we are introduced to a different kind of castaway.  Kim Jung-yeon (Jung Ryeo-won) is a young woman shut away in a room of her parent’s home. She fears the outside world and masquerades as multiple different people through fake personae on the internet. She follows a strict ritual on a daily basis, including 10,000 steps on her pedometer each day and a strictly regimented calorie diet. The curtains in her trash cluttered room only open at night when she spies through the telephoto lens of her camera to pursue her “hobby:” photos of the moon.

From her sheltered and secure cave-like room Jung-yeon sees Seung-geun’s message on the beach through her telephoto lens. She thinks he’s an alien come to learn about the human race. In her defense, Seung-geun’s antics seem extraterrestrial enough, especially when viewed from such a distance through the lens of a camera.

What follows is the most peculiar, charming and romantic pen-pal love affair I’ve ever seen put to film. I am ashamed to admit I feel I’ve already given away too much of this film. I didn’t have a clue what I was getting into when I first selected it from the Netflix instant queue. It was a recommendation from my daughter and with few exceptions I find her opinion is one I can trust. At least when it comes to films.

The introduction of the female Kim ­– as she’s listed in the credits – was an entirely unexpected turn in the not-so-standard castaway film. One man’s comic struggles for survival became the story of two unlikely souls meeting in the most unusual of ways.

I couldn’t help but be reminded of Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s 2001 “Amelie”- one of my all-time favorite films. “Castaway on the Moon” has just the right amount of fantastic creativity, heart and charm as “Amelie.” The films share enough quirky genetics to be distant cousins. However where the French film seems to rely heavily on the quirk and dream-painted Parisian cityscapes, “Castaway” resides mostly in the here and now. The South Korean film has an almost more meaningful gravitas due largely to the sympathetic and near tragic nature of its two leads.

If your situation is anything like Kim Seung-geun’s at the start of this film I strongly recommend catching this delightful, inspiring and charming feature. Like the “male Kim” of this story, you may just find there is always something to live for even if that something comes from the most unsuspected of places in the most unlikely of times.

Four and a half out of 5 Motorcycle helmets.

Castaway on the Moon (2009)

Director: Hey-jun Lee

Starring: Jung Jae-young and Jung Ryeo-won

Not Rated

Runtime: 116 minutes

A terrible child for the season of scares

A few weeks ago I reviewed a horror classic, 1979’s “The Omen.” I was upset when I found it fell short from the memories I had of the much praised film. Though the film didn’t quite hold up to today’s standards I praised it for the story. If you missed that column here’s the nutshell premise of “The Omen”: A couple is shocked to discover their child is none other than the son of Satan himself. Chaos ensues.

This week I found a more modern take on a similar story in 2011’s “We need to talk about Kevin.” Though any supernatural trappings are absent from this film what is presented on screen is a far more horrific and terrifying manifestation of what can only considered evil in the form of a young child.

“We need to talk about Kevin” stars Tilda Swinton as Eva, the wife of John C. Reilly’s Franklin and mother of Kevin (portrayed by three actors varying from toddler to teen; Rock Duer, Jasper Newell, and Ezra Miller.)

From Kevin’s birth we see Eva stricken with a bout of post partum depression. As her son grows we see there is a strange gap of love between mother and son. Eva blames herself for this inadequacy of motherhood but soon it becomes clear Kevin is not very loveable at all in the first place.

Kevin’s faults are harmless at first. His late or reluctance in potty training is clearly not the mark of a bad seed. But as the story progresses we see Kevin is not just a stubborn child but a maliciously manipulative child. Husband Franklin sees none of this behavior as Kevin reserves his heinous acts for his mother alone.

Eventually, as Kevin ages, his attitude and vile boils to new levels. The child’s acts of rebellion become violent and treacherous. This is all exacerbated by the introduction of a new child between Eva and Franklin, Celia (Ashley Gerasimovich).

The story is told through Eva’s point of view and it’s told in a jarring non-chronological way. The film begins near the end and colorful yet confusing flashbacks stutter-step us through the story. I found the film almost too distracting in its curious narration to complete until about a third of the way in. Thankfully the story began to progress more logically with only the occasional flash-forwards to modern day as the meat of the tale unfolded.

Tilda Swinton held the role well, however and cleverly kept me wondering what had happened in her life that had reduced her to the state we first see her in at the film’s opening. As the movie settled down and the truth of the story began in a more traditional manner she was believable as a mother in an impossible situation.

Of the children cast as Kevin the teenaged Ezra Miller gets the most grit out of the role. He does what he’s supposed to do and he does it terrifyingly well. Miller is a modern-day Eddie Hascall to his father and a super-charged sadistic child when alone with his mother. Only Eva knows the depths of his depravity.

I understand director Lynne Ramsay’s goal to assemble the film in such a twisted mix-mash way. Much more tension is generated by the mystery presented at the film’s beginning than if the story had just progressed from beginning, middle to the tragic end. However it was rather uncomfortable to watch. The story and the acting do pay off and it’s worth it to stick with the film through to the end.

The film strikes a peculiar place in that it ranks up amongst the must-see films of the day, however due to it’s peculiar filmmaking or perhaps the subject matter itself, I feel I don’t need to see this movie ever again. Nonetheless, as a member of the horrible children genre of horror movies “Kevin” out scares “The Omen” and is certainly more bad than “The Bad Seed.” As the Halloween scare season comes to a close I recommend the film. Young Kevin is certainly a child to talk about.

We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011)

3 out of 5 Ominous sounding sprinklers

Director: Lynne Ramsay

Starring: Tilda Swinton, John C. Reilly and Ezra Miller

Rated R for disturbing violence and behavior, some sexuality and language.

Runtime: 112 Minutes