MIFF 2005 FILM FESTIVAL NOTEBOOK

By Joel Johnson

DAY 5

The Baxter

The Baxter is a romantic comedy that takes as its beginning the end of many other romantic comedies. Michael Showalter who wrote, directed, and stars as the bride’s wrong would-be husband left at the altar while the perfect couple head off toward romantic bliss. This staple character has supposedly been called a “Baxter” by Showalter’s character’s grandmother so this, ergo, is the title of the film. This is, of course, a unique approach that makes this film begin quite differently than the garden-variety romantic comedy. Unfortunately, the uniqueness of this set-up only lasts so long. Showalter works a little too hard at not only making his character an unthreatening, risk-averse blandly nice guy, but also making him quintessentially nerdy, socially clueless, and virtually devoid of any spontaneity romantic or otherwise. While it is easy to understand how the beautiful blonde princess Caroline (Elizabeth Banks) could attract Showalter’s Elliot Sherman, it is nearly impossible to understand what she—or anyone else for that matter—would see in him. He has, however, just met his new temp Cecil (adorably cute Michelle Williams) and is virtually in mid-sentence asking her for a date when Caroline sweeps into his office. Despite the initial chemistry between Cecil and Elliot, what chance has mere cuteness got against blonde perfection. Against all odds—oh, that’s right, he wrote the script!—Elliot beds and is on the verge of wedding the wondrous Caroline. Suddenly, old longtime boyfriend Bradley (Justin Theroux) whose mere existence Caroline has never shared with Elliot shows up just days before the wedding. Elliot, whose love life has been so full of Baxterish disappointment, can anticipate a broken heart with the same sense of certitude that used to be the sole province of Red Sox fans and yet he is absolutely clueless as to why this keeps happening to him. He shares his concerns with the serendipitously placed Cecil and she, eventually, explains what his problem is. All this happens just 35 minutes into the film. It will be another hour before the wrong couple come to the altar and don’t get married and then the two right couples commit to each other. This isn’t a bad film and it does have some real comic moments. Unfortunately, it just doesn’t have quite enough of them. It also doesn’t have any really good reason for Elliot and his true love to fail to connect for as long as they do. However, their failure to do so until the very end of the film is—like romantic comedy rule number one—and romantic comedy rule number two is don’t forget rule number one. So it becomes very predictable and not terribly clever in it execution of rules one and two. I think there’s a reason they just don’t make many pictures about the type of guy that doesn’t get the girl.

I Shot Andy Warhol

I Shot Andy Warhol is one of four films spotlighting the career of MIFF’s Pre-Midlife Achievement Award recipient Lili Taylor. Lili plays Valerie Solanas, the “I” of I Shot Andy Warhol. Although the events this film describes occurred about the same time as the real-life Lili Taylor was making her first appearance 38 years ago, many people may remember that noted iconoclastic artist Warhol had survived a shooting. The story of the very bright, yet deeply troubled woman who shot him had never received much attention until director Mary Harron, who wrote the script with Daniel Minahan and additional material contributed by Jeremiah Newton, decided to tell her story. The film is, however, more than just the personal story of a disturbed woman suffering from mental illness surviving at the margins of society. Solanas articulated a very angry extreme feminism in her published manifesto S.C.U.M. (Society for Cutting Up Men) that was not entirely out-of-step with the emerging movement in the 60’s for women’s liberation. This is also the story of the creative spirit of the 60’s since Warhol was an icon of that creativity and this is a fictional look at Warhol’s entourage of creative minds both real and faux. Harron has assembled an outstanding ensemble of actors to tell this story, but Taylor absolutely has to be credible as Solanas for the film to work. She delivers a terrific performance. This is a very good film that challenges the audience by dealing with exceedingly dark material to shed light on both an individual and a time. This is the kind of film that exemplifies what independent film can accomplish.



Regular readers of Wolf Moon will recognize that we rarely miss an opportunity to see a film, but following I Shot Andy Warhol we decided to attend the reception for Lili Taylor rather than attend another movie. The not-yet-seen choices were Twist of Faith and The World. Both seemed a bit heavy, especially after I Shot Andy Warhol, and in the case of The World (140 minutes) much too long. Besides, the receptions do provide an opportunity for festival-goers to celebrate and share the film-viewing experiences that can be very individual in the moment that they occur. They also provide the opportunity to meet and greet special guests like Lili Taylor who was very gracious in talking with fans. And, of course, the Last Unicorn does serve terrific food. So we reveled in the festival spirit.
 

Day 6 -->

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