ScreenFish

where faith and film are intertwined

Gabriel Byrne

An L.A. Minute – Fickleness of Fame

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An L.A. Minute seeks to be a satire focused on the place fame has in our culture. It clearly makes a point that fame and success are not all that many might hope for, but it misses opportunities to truly speak to cultural issues.

Ted Gould (Gabriel Byrne) is a successful writer who got a Pulitzer for his first novel and been coasting since then. He has a new book out, but it’s not the same quality as his earlier work. He is obviously not happy with his life even though he has gained success, riches, and fame.

One night as he and a friend walk along the street, Ted passes out money to the homeless. It’s not so much doing a good deed as feeding his own ego. When the paper money runs out, another homeless person asks for money and he gives him the change in his pocket. But he also accidentally gives him a medallion he got early in life that serves as a reminder of what life once meant for him. He begins looking at homeless encampments and shelters to find the medallion.

On the journey he meets Velocity (Kiersey Clemons), a young performance artist. She is intelligent and energetic. He is taken with her. Since his new book is about a homeless serial killer, she convinces him he should spend a night on the streets. In time, Ted comes to reject his fame, pushes Velocity into the limelight. Soon their worlds turn upside down. Showing how fame can be fickle and temporary.

The film is built on the idea that famous people (especially those in the entertainment industry) are self-centered, uncaring, and often vacuous. It deals in stereotypes that we may want to accept because our own self-image is burnished in comparison.  It also conflates success, fame, and fortune, giving the idea that they are synonymous. In doing so it sets up a wholly unrealistic vision of the world.

The most disappointing aspect of the film for me is that it brings in concepts that could have been fruitfully explored, but failed to do so. What is the meaning of charity? What is the nature of homelessness? In a world with rich and poor, what are our responsibilities to each other? How should we look at the homeless and how do we treat them with respect? In short, this had the potential to be a new Sullivan’s Travels. Instead it is just the kind of mindless dross that Ted Gould has been writing to get rich and famous.

Photos courtesy of Strand Releasing

Louder Than Bombs – Finding Ways Through Grief

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In Louder than Bombs, when noted war photographer Isabelle Reed (Isabelle Huppert) dies on the eve of an exhibition honoring her work, her husband Gene (Gabriel Byrne) and two sons, Jonah and Conrad (Jesse Eisenberg and Devin Druid), must deal with their grief. Each has a different approach to the difficult time. Each must come to terms with the way their relationship with her evolved.

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For Gene, it is a time of struggling to connect with Conrad, who has taken refuge in video games. Jonah, a new father, takes leave from his career and new family to catalogue his mother’s photos. There are many ways that these characters are all hiding from the grief that they must deal with—and also from the fears of what life may become for them. Their memories are sometimes painful and at other times joyous. They will discover secrets about one another and about their mother. Eventually they must choose on how they will deal with their grief and how to move from this time of death and darkness to a way back to life.

One of the issues that all must deal with is that Isabelle was somewhat detached from them all. She would be gone for long periods to war zones, where she would be in danger, leaving her family behind to worry. Even when we see her pictures of women in those war zones, the faces seem blank, as if reflecting Isabelle. We can’t tell if faces reflect boredom, anger, or oppression. It is that same kind of detachment that seems to be growing within Jonah. With a newborn baby at home, he spends his time at his father’s house dealing with the massive number of his mother’s pictures. He seems to be avoiding his own role as husband and father, just as his mother may have been avoiding her role with the family.

Grief is one of the universal themes that film can address. As we watch the Reed family deal with the grief in their life, we feel a connection with them because we have been there as well. Even in relationships that may not have been all we might wish they had been, the loss of one who holds an important place in our lives is a struggle that is so difficult that many may look for ways to avoid it. But in time, it must be faced.

Photos courtesy of The Orchard.