The Sessions: Handicapable in a Lot a Ways

              This different perspective, along with an endearing cast of characters and a surprising humor is what make this film a touching and provocative study of complicated love. Sex is the subject but what actually engages is the relationships amongst characters which showcase the therapeutic effect of human connection. 

The Sessions, a film about a handicapped man and his unorthodox search for love, gets you thinking about things you’ve probably never thought of before. The sex life of people with severe physical disabilities, for instance. What does it mean for your romantic life when you have the desire but not the ability to have sex? Do you remain in a state of perpetual innocence? Do you try not to think about it or is it all you think about? These uncomfortable questions are explored in the film and an obvious answer quickly emerges. Most handicapped people’s lives are not much different from anyone else’s, but just as they must approach tasks such as opening doors in a different way, love and sex come with their own unique approach.

The real Marc O'Brien

       The story is based on the life of writer/poet Marc O’Brien. O’Brien contracted polio as a boy and became unable to move anything below his neck for the rest of his life. He isn’t exactly paralyzed; he can feel everything, it’s just that his muscles don’t work. An iron lung does 80% of his breathing. He’s only out of the machine during outings with his attendant Vera and at church. Despite these difficult circumstances, Marc at 38 views his condition with a wry sense of humor that is charmingly self-deprecating. But though he has

reached a level of acceptance, one area of his existence still fills him with wistful regret. Marc as a writer has always had a hazy romantic vision of love, but he has never actually been steeped in its reality. That is until he hires Amanda whose unabashed affection for him sends him head-over-heels in love for the first time. Unfortunately his love remains unrequited. Marc does not blame his condition for this rejection, but his own innocence. He confides to his priest, played by William H Macy that the feelings generated by loving this girl has made him want to explore his sexual side. He asks Father Brendon if God would disapprove if he hired a sex surrogate. Father Brendon doesn’t take long to reply, “I think He’s going to give you a free pass on this one. Go for it.”

 

            For the record, a sex surrogate, a very popular profession during the 1990s when the real Marc O’Brien wrote his article “On Seeing A Sex Surrogate” on which this movie is based, is not a prostitute. Helen Hunt’s Cheryl explains the difference to Marc. “A prostitute wants your repeat business,” she says, “I only need to see you for 6 sessions.” The professional relationship quickly takes a turn towards the sentimental when Marc and Cheryl show feelings for each other beyond physical lust. Cheryl, an underappreciated mom and wife, is touched by Marc’s adoration for her and his poetic, romantic actions. And Marc is in awe of this woman who provides access to a world of physical and emotional ecstasy that he thought he could never know. The fact that they know that their relations together must end makes their interaction together intense, passionate and tinged with a delicious injection of longing and regret. 

           I found John Hawkes to be just a marvel in this movie. I have loved him since his bone-chilling performance in “Winter’s Bone,” but considering the physical challenges of this role I’m surprised that he was recognized by the Academy in 2012. As Marc, Hawkes had to stay stationary on a flatbed and contort his body so that his chest jutted out sharply while keeping his stomach sunk in. He portrayed a good-natured, loving individual while obviously in pain. That’s an incredible dedication to one’s craft. It really paid off. He was the light of the movie and everyone else was illuminated by his warmth. Marc Together with Helen Hunt I can not imagine a couple you would want to root for more.  I am so happy to see her in films again, btw. There is realness and warmth in her every performance. To be honest, I wasn’t really sold on her Boston accent here, but those cares are quickly melted away by the sincerity of her words and how genuinely she conveys her emotional journey as her client becomes an unlikely contender for her heart. This movie is so beautiful and shares such an enduring message about love and relationships; I seriously hope that it is widely seen and appreciated for its crowd breaking material.  

Flight: With Movies Like These It's A Wonder Why Anyone Flies Anymore

The movie Flight is good. It’s very good. But it doesn’t succeed in achieving the level of brilliance one expects with names like Robert Zemeckis and Denzel Washington attached. There are moments in the film that accomplish feats of cinematic skill unmatched by any other movie you’ve seen this year. But there are also moments that while emotionally engaging, don’t quite affect us as deeply as they might if the film makers had pushed a little more. Scenes that are meant to pack a punch only slap playfully due in most cases to writing that lacks…well lacks. 

The film stars Denzel Washington as Whip Whitaker, an airline pilot who manages to land a malfunctioning plane and consequently save most of the souls on board. It’s only after this spectacular rescue that the true drama of the film plays out as Whitaker is investigated for his suspected consumption of alcohol while on board. Due to these accusations, Whip is forced to confront the root causes of his addiction, how it has affected his life and how it could ruin his future.

 

 I acknowledge the film’s shortcomings, but I cannot say that I feel the same way about Washington’s performance at all. Stumbling, stammering, lying and denying, Whip is presented to us as a man riddled in flaws so deep that they’ve partly rotted out his humanity, leaving behind nothing more than a swaggering cad. Still, we like him. We like him out of pity. He breaks our hearts because he wants to change, but can’t. He keeps getting dragged away from that possibility by his demons. To watch him sink deeper and deeper into the hole dug by his addiction is like watching a character in a horror movie walk down a darkly lit corridor, only without irony and with an increased sense of dread. We become like every other person in Whip’s life constantly torn between admiration for his skill and horror at his behavior. The ability to pull us in and marry our emotions completely with the destiny of the character is a feat of the filmmakers yes, but the credit is due to Washington’s frank and authentic performance. 

Washington’s performance and the first 30 minutes of the film are what make it a worthy contender for the Best Picture Oscar. In the first 30 minutes the most incredible scene featuring the plane malfunctioning and finally crashing unfolds and I guarantee it will leave you speechless. Zemeckis orchestrates this spectacular sequence with the precision of a particularly enthralling Hitchcockian thriller . You’re emotional state is ravaged. Part of you wants it to end immediately, and part of you wants it to go on and on for hours. Maybe that was the problem with the rest of the film: the opening was so amazing that the rest couldn’t possibly live up to it. 

The truth is that it could have lived up to it if the words and actions of the supporting characters had some depth to them. But as it is, no one else is endowed with the dimension and layers of Whip. It comes to the point where characters seem expendable and interchangeable. We wonder why this person is here and what good is what they say. No one acts with individual intention, but rather in reaction to Whip’s erratic behavior. As a result, the film does not have the weight that it should.

But as a study of addiction, the film works well. In Whip’s journey we watch the extremes of irrational need and it burns with brutal honesty. For this reason especially, this film is worth watching.

Smash: Didn't this show used to be way better?

So Smash, a show about two young women trying to achieve their Broadway dreams amidst all kinds of drama, returned for its new season last night. This show endured a huge overhaul by the show’s producers because viewer response to the first season was less than stellar. Apparently the show was campy with a Capital C to most people, but I liked the first season. 

The original music was fun, beautifully arranged, and encompassed the glamour and magic of old Broadway show tunes. The covers were instantly downloadable and Katharine McPhee and Megan Hilty have AMAZING voices. The acting and plots were an over the top, but it was fun to watch. I liked how there was always a new emotional challenge for the actors. 

According to EW, the producers fired the show’s conceptual creator and show runner and hired the guy from Gossip Girl to replace her. Really? You want to stay away from camp and corniness and you bring in the guy who wrote about Park Avenue princesses and the ridiculously over–the-top “problems” that tragically befall them? But I was still excited to see the premiere. The opening number was FABULOUS. Katherine McpHEE IS SO LUMINOUS as Marilyn in the show’s first number. She’s beautiful and so is the song she sings. It really brought the season off to a great start and promised the glamour and beauty that we all want from the show. That was the high point, but it did not stay there. From there the show immediately delivers the camp that they wanted to avoid, but without the heart that made last season watchable.

 

The script is awful. Everyone’s words are hollow: “On Broadway, everyone will want to bring you down, but if the work is good, they won’t be able to” is said by new addition Jennifer Hudson’s character, Broadway star, Veronica Moore, but as much as the Oscar winner tries to inject her soulful realness into the words, they sound really bland and typical. 

And then later a lunch meeting ends with this sentence being texted to someone: “Let’s move forward with the plan.” Seriously? The show undergoes a million dollar overhaul and the best you can come up with is “Let’s move forward with the plan?” That’s no improvement, it’s a serious downgrade. 

And the worse possible development: the sleazy, slimy, grimy, harass-y director of the Marilyn show, Derek, ends up with Karen, our squeaky queen heroine? I’ve heard of redemption, but that’s ridiculous. That’s like Bambi ending up with the hunter in the end!  

The songs are great though. This new guy, Jimmy (Jeremy Jordan), has an incredible voice. The songs he sings are supposed to be groundbreaking in their originality, but they’re actually pretty basic late 80s affairs. Still stirring emotionally though. He can sing, really beautifully, and he’s cute. He’s a far better option for Karen than greasy Derek. 

And the premiere was two hours? Why? Just to jam pack every plot twist and jump-the-shark moment into two hours? Two hours with all of this drama is just exhausting. Don’t be so desperate Smash!

Beasts of The Southern Wild: "Don't nobody like no pity-party havin ass woman"

The movie Beasts of the Southern Wild ricochets around the corners of your mind, becoming louder with each memory of its deep, penetrating rawness long after the credits have rolled. Maybe there isn’t one scene that keeps coming back to you but instead a lingering feeling of satisfaction that validates the quality of the art that you have just seen. Set in a sinking Louisiana Bayou called The Bathtub, a young girl named Hushpuppy lives with her father and learns the only truths worth knowing in their derelict community: survival is everything, don’t whine and never turn your back on your home. They seem like hard lessons for kids so young, but for Hushpuppy and her mopheaded classmates these facts represent their reality and imbue them with the strength and resistance they possess. 

 Hushpuppy is one especially tough little chick. Brought to passionate life by then 6-year-old Quvenzhané (Kohr-VEN-Jennae) Wallis, Hushpuppy is by her own testimony “the man!” She cooks, she stands-up to her full-grown father (“when you die, I’m going to sit on your grave and eat birthday cake all day long!”) and even to a giant mythical beast. She cannot be tamed. When a terrifying storm forces the residents of the Bathtub from their homes, Hushpuppy, her father, and a few colorful characters stay and endeavor to rebuild. When “outsiders” force them to go to a modern hospital, the narrative turns from a colorful portrait of a distinct community to an escape narrative with Hushpuppy leading the charge to get home. The confidence displayed by the intrepid girl in her brood’s moment of need is nothing short of awe-inspiring. In these moments of bravery, Wallis transforms her character from precocious little girl to a maverick that we all look up to. She displays such a strong capable persona that you have to remind yourself that she’s only a child.

 Hushpuppy’s age becomes touchingly obvious in scenes where, overcome by loneliness or the realization of a problem bigger than herself, she cries with fervent emotion for her long-lost mother. It is never exactly clear what happened to Hushpuppy’s mom, but her memory reaches mythic proportions when tales of her exquisite beauty and unparalleled strength are recounted by Hushpuppy and her father in a style that is slightly fantastic and completely from the heart; in other words the rich storytelling is uniquely Louisianan. This can be used to describe the style of the entire film. The movie is virtually bare of cinematic frills and feels more like a candid documentary of an isolated community. This unfashioned approach makes what unfolds before us seem very real and therefore touching in its display of raw humanity. 

                No one is rawer in the film than Hushpuppy’s father Wink, a man with a heart riddled with physical and emotional defects. Wink believes that he is invincible and wants everyone else to believe this too, especially his daughter. He certainly has the appearance of a strong man, but his irrationally aggressive actions and demeanor suggest an insecurity that goes far deeper than his sudden heart trouble. It is a testament to Dwight Henry’s sensational acting that Wink never becomes only one type of man. His performance captures the complexity of this character so we do not condemn him but strive to understand him and his relationship with his daughter.  With a performance this honest, I’m surprised that Henry has not been recognized by any award shows.

I love how this film subverts the image of a traditional hero by placing little Hushpuppy in this role. It shows that power can come from many shapes, sizes, races and ages. I particularly like the depiction of black women in the film. More than her father, Hushpuppy’s mentors are her deceased mother, her tough-talking teacher and a cat-fish cooking waitress that dispenses straight-forward advice amidst the sizzle and pop of a skillet. Though jaded by the pain of poverty and disappointments, they display superhuman levels of strength, confidence and, somehow, compassion. Though Hushpuppy is a singularly impressive girl, if she has seen far it’s because she has stood on the strong dark shoulders of those who came, saw and suffered before her. 

Wallis is up for a Best Actress Oscar this year which is an incredible achievement for one so young. Though she may not have given the most challenging performance by a female in 2012, I do believe the film itself deserves serious recognition. If Quvenzhané’s nomination guides viewers to this film, than that will be recognition enough. I just hope the Disney channel stays away from her. They’ve ruined enough perfectly ballsy talent.