Short Takes

Movies: Helvetica, Mysterious Skin, The Fighter

Helvetica


Helvetica is a documentary on what could potentially be a very boring topic: typefaces (aka fonts). Yet the film proves to be interesting and entertaining in a "Hmm...I never knew that. Learning is fun!" sort of way. The documentary discusses the development of the helvetica typeface in the late 1950's--a time when typography and graphic design were evolving into what we would consider a modernistic style (think sleek, clean lines). Now, 50 years later, helvetica and similar typefaces are more prevalent than ever in graphic culture and show no signs of going away, despite some backlash against the ubiquity of the font. It's fascinating to think that typefaces surround us on a daily basis and subliminally influence us, yet most people never give them a single thought. 

3.5 out of 5 stars

***

Mysterious Skin


I've seen Gregg Araki's Mysterious Skin twice now, and while I was watching it the second time I was thinking "Why am I willingly putting myself through this again?" Not because Mysterious Skin is a bad film (it's actually an excellent film), but because it is about one of the most disturbing, difficult issues imaginable: child sexual abuse, and the devastating burden victims of abuse carry with them throughout their lives. In the film, two boys grow up in a small town. Brian (played as a teenager by Brady Corbett) is tormented by five hours of his life that went "missing" when he was eight years old. He becomes increasingly convinced that he was abducted by aliens during that evening he can't remember. Neil (Joseph Gordon-Levitt, in a mind-blowing performance), on the other hand, remembers quite clearly that he was the "favorite" of his baseball coach when he was eight, and that he spent a lot of time at Coach's house playing video games, eating sugary cereals, and playing other "games" Coach taught him. Neil grows up to be a hustler who specializes in servicing older men. He eventually moves to New York City and takes bigger and bigger sexual risks that almost destroy him.

Araki handles a nearly impossible subject with sensitivity and grace. He never excuses the coach's monstrous abuse, but he doesn't make the coach into a cartoonish villain either. And, in the case of Neil, it is made very clear that Neil knew he was gay from a young age--the abuse didn't "make him gay", although it certainly affected him in dangerous and awful ways. The final scene of the movie, in which Neil takes Brian back to Coach's old house and describes to him, in graphic detail, what happened during those "missing" hours is beyond heartbreaking. Corbett and Gordon-Levitt show us, with their faces and mannerisms, how abuse can have vastly different outcomes on different people, and how the memory of abuse can be devastating, transformative, and healing all at the same time.

Mysterious Skin is not a film for everyone. It is extremely difficult to watch, but it is sensitive, well-made, and important.

5 out of 5 stars

***

The Fighter


Nominated for Best Picture this past year, I expected to like The Fighter a lot more than I did. The film is based on the lives of Mickey Ward and his half-brother Dickey Eklund, and their large and loud family. Mickey (Mark Wahlberg) is an up-and-coming boxer in Lowell, Massachusetts. He is trained by Dickey (Christian Bale), aka "The Pride of Lowell", who once knocked out Sugar Ray Leonard (or did Leonard just trip?). Dickey's glory days are far behind him and he spends most of his time smoking crack with his burnout friends. Their mother, Alice Ward (Melissa Leo), seems to favor Dickey, and continues to kid herself that Dickey is due for a comeback any day, despite the fact that Dickey is around 40 years old and is--whoops!--an emaciated crack addict. The story is not so much about boxing as it is about Mickey learning to not be codependent on his family--a family that claims to have his best interests at heart, but actually hold him back from reaching his potential. Mickey, who comes across as strangely passive in the film, is encouraged by his father and his girlfriend (Amy Adams). He eventually breaks free of his deadbeat brother, controlling and manipulative mother, and abrasive sisters (he has seven of them. My dad called them a "Greek Chorus").

The Fighter is an interesting film on many levels. I like that it is not a typical sports film, and that it's really more about screwed up family dynamics than anything else, but I found the portrayals of many of the characters to be cartoonish and over the top--especially Bale as Dickey and Leo as Alice Ward (ironically, Bale and Leo won Oscars for their performances). Maybe that's how the Ward family really was in real life, but the way they are portrayed in the film seemed to be verging on parody. The second half of the film (once Dickey is in prison and Mickey begins his boxing career in earnest) is measurably better than the first half.

3 out of 5 stars