The Great Danes: Her perfect portrayal of Temple Grandin

This year's crop of HBO movies far, far surpasses the lame and dispiriting efforts of 2009. "Temple Grandin" may be the best of the bunch - in any case, I found it totally enthralling for its nearly two hours, interesting both because of Grandin and who she is and how effectively this tightly directed film captures the way she thinks, the struggle she had to find a place in the world, her fine accomplishments, the complexities of her condition (autism), and the difficulties she faced growing up in the 50s and 60s that are somewhat alleviated today, thanks in part to her. The film is not in the least mawkish, it's sometimes funny, often sad, has moments of triumph without being overly sentimental, and doesn't overstate the claims for Grandin. She's not superhuman. She's real, with strengths and flaws like all of us. We see how autism is something of a spectrum diagnosis, and she's pretty far out on the edge of the spectrum, but because of her mother's determination and refusal to accept the limited medical advice of the era, she made the most of her life. The scenes of her trying to socialize and to "fit in" at school are vivid and painful. Can't say enough about Clare Danes's portrayal, funny and vivid and completely believable, through a whole range of emotions - all while not being able to protray emotions through traditional means of social interaction. The only weakness of the film is the totally opaque Julia Ormond, who once again show that a pretty face is not enough if you can't show anything beneath the surface. Another film that could never have been made for commercial release but finds a great venue through HBO.

A little postmodern music box a show : Seinfeld Reunion episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm

I guess it's no news that "Curb Your Enthusiasm" is consistently funny and well-written. I won't have too much to say about each episode, but the Seinfeld reunion episode, aside from blowing me away once again by the clever plot construction, is an amusing little postmodern music box, as we watch a show about characters talking about a Seinfeld reunion, but of course to bring the actors into the show to talk about the reunion show, which they may never do, Larry David does in fact create the (nonexistant) reunion show. And we experience exactly the kind of displacement that the character, Larry David, frets about: oh, he's gotten fat, she still looks great, he's much more sedate in real life, etc. We're watching the aging actors, not the show. All that set off against the subplot of the head of NBC, based on someone of course (Jeff Zucker?), offers comped Lakers tix but they end up being nosebleeders, which drives Larry D crazy. Most viewers should be pissed off at that - what makes you so special? You, can afford the best seats - you ought to be made to sit in the rafters with the rest of us. What a penance! But it's funny nevertheless as he sees the studio head courtside, with David Spade, and feels slighted and calls him on his cell and, through binocks, watches the exec screen the call. Show is building toward Larry (maybe) getting back with Cheryl, who wants a part in the reunion show. Funny dialogues about type of apology - somewhere between grudging and sincere - and about coordinating the tip when you split the tab.

We know it's funny, but the plots are also so well designed: Curb Your Enthusiasm

"Curb Your Enthusiasm" is, as M notes, an R-Rated Seinfeld. Extremely funny, clever, well written or sketched, and, perhaps surprisingly, well designed. The plots are like tight little well-made plays, every element and shtick introduced in the first moments will come back and play a role. Last night watched episode called vehicular fellatio - i don't need to say more about that - but in addition to loving the humor I greatly admired the construction of the story, the craft: Larry can't open a vacuum-packed package (stabs it, stomps on it, etc, who hasn't done that), goes to his current girlfriend (black woman like a young tina turner improbably moved in with him), she bosses him around, he's got to get out of the relationship, he sees a Dr. Phil show in which the guest is a psychiatrist who counsels cancer patients to leave their toxic relationships, Larry gets his girlfriend (a ca patient) to see this doctor, he acts like a jerk in her office, hoping she'll counsel his girlfriend to leave, on the way to a lecture they see the psychiatrist giving a blow job to her husband, girlfriend repulsed refuses to go to the lecture, Larry disappointed, when he goes to the psych office to pay a bill (don't ask - another funny plot twist) she calls him into her office, he tells why his girlfriend dropped out, dr. denies it, hits him, he goes home - oh, god, i'm not going to explain everything - there are more twists and turns - and it loses everything in the telling. It's all worth it for the crazy arguments he gets into about the most mundane things (who should pay for a pair of broken sunglasses), great show.

Only weakness in this film is its ridiculous title

So often an HBO/Showtime movie nabs a major star for the lead role (often sharing exec producer credit) and the star wins an Emmy for a routine performance, but because the TV industry is honored to have a Paul Newman, e.g., step into its milieu. Al Pacino's going to be the exception - his performance in the HBO "You Don't Know Jack," as Dr. Jack Kevorkian, is amazing, transformative. I know that sometimes it's easier to portray a character in a biopic than to create an entirely fictive character from the whole cloth, but Kevorkian - well, it's not like Dennis Quaid playing Clinton (The Special Relationship), when we're constantly comparing him with the real guy. Most of us don't know anything about what Kevorkian was like - so we're just judging Pacino on his tremendous evocation of a character, obsessed, self-righteous, brave, eccentric, ascetic, principled, pig-headed, emotional, and caustic. It's a really smart movie, the best of this waning genre to come along in a few years, I think. Really makes you think about the issue and totally draws you in with strong character portrayal, smart writing, good supporting cast - though a bit long, took up my whole evening at 2+ hours. Pacino's argument with his/Kevorkian's sister in the diner is a tremendous scene, and the many interviews with the dying patients are all very powerful - wonder if they used some real documentary footage, there or with the TV appearances or the court appearances? This is a great use of cable medium, as the material deserves a feature-length treatment but it's obvious no studio would ever take on this subject for a commercial film, probably correctly - the topic would never draw a crowd to the Showcase. Only weakness of the film is its ridiculous and inapt title.

Well-made, well-scripted, well-directed - but you finish The Special Relationship feeling puzzled

"The Special Relationship" is another in the long line of well-made BBC/HBO movies, well acted, well-scripted, well-directed, nothing wrong with it, but it doesn't have a great interior life. Like The Queen, like Frost/Nixon, like many others, it's a gloss on history, a reminder of a time we lived through, and, for Americans, a different perspective on familiar events. You have to like the film - an examination of the working friendship between Blair and Clinton - but you also leave it feeling kind of puzzled: how much is based on the historical record (even on memoirs), and how much is purely fictional? It's not quite a documentary, though it does effectively use documentary footage, especially at the end when we see (the real) Blair with (the real) George W. Bush, and it's just painful to see that stilted and unpleasant partnership after the intelligent and edgy friendship between Blair and Clinton (very well acted by Dennis Quaid). Very interesting to see how the two men used each other from time to time to build domestic support - Blair getting help from Clinton regarding N Ireland, at no apparent cost and to no apparent, immediate, benefit for Clinton, the favor later returned when Blair stood up for Clinton during the Lewinsky scandal. The film is primarily from the British POV of course, but for an American viewer the interest level, no matter what, will still be focused on Clinton, or actually the Clintons, because some of the best scenes are the domestics between Bill and Hillary (Hope Davis).

Why Yesterday Girl is an obscure film

Who knew that in the mid-60s there was a German New Wave as well? The wave petered out, I guess, before rolling into shore. One of the few examples, or one of the few I've ever heard of, is the now-obscure "Yesterday Girl," directed by Alexander Kluge, and starring his sister Alexandra. All of the techniques that Truffaut and Godard, et al., explored from the mid-50s on show up here - the break with conventional narrative, the interpolated dream or fantasy sequences, the odd moments of addressing the camera, the quick jump cuts in space and time, the incredibly long langourous post-coital discussions about art and life, the "text cards," the bandit on the run, the glamorous low-lifer, the long panning shots in open space - but when seen through a German lens, surprise!, they're not as funny and full of verve, but more heavy-handed and portentous. Still, even after 40 years, Yesterday Girl is fresh in many ways, it still has the fresh-air spirit of young filmmakers in love with the medium and willing to try any technique to tell their story. And by the end you do fell that you get to know this sad character, Anita G., an E German struggling to get a footing in the West but with no chance. The trenchant critique of the German justice system and university system is still powerful (and funny) today. I wonder what happened to Kluge (or the Kluges) - he never emerged as a recognizable cultural figure, as so many of his European contemporaries did. Perhaps he was just a bit too derivative. Yesterday Girl is a good film that would be much more widely seen and appreciated if the director has developed an entire auteur corpus.

A great indie film that sets modest goals and achieves them: Old Joy

If you could combine, say, Sideways without the sex, My Dinner with Andre without New York, Deliverance without the violence, and Blair Witch without the witches you might have something like "Old Joy," a buddy movie that has essentially two characters only, two guys in late-20s, friends who've grown apart as one, Mark, has moved on with his life, married, wife expecting, and Kurt is still locked in their old days as late-vintage Portland hippies. The two guys go off for a weekend of camping, and it becomes more obvious as it proceeds that Kurt is a deeply troubled young man and unlikely to get along with his life, and that Mark is humoring him or carrying him, out of old loyalty, but Mark has moved beyond those days - the pull of responsibility, his guilt about leaving his pregnant wife back at home, is a torment to him that he can't shake. It would be harder for him were there anything appealing about Kurt, but there isn't - as Mark is well aware. The movie is very simple, based on a short story, and it speaks volumes about friendship and time and maturity, as much by what it doesn't say as by what it does. Also very beautiful shots of Oregon in its grandeur (their trip through the Cascades culminates at a hidden, kind of spooky hot springs spa) and its decrepitude, impoverished small lumber towns and the dreary gray outskirts of Portland. It's kind of a guy movie, though not in a macho way at all, but I think women would not completely "get" Mark's ambivalence and his struggle - though I'm pretty sure the writer/director, Kelly something, is a woman, so go figure. A great indie film that sets modest goals and achieves them.