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STUDIO: Warner Brothers
MSRP: $24.99
RATED: R
RUNNING TIME: 107 minutes
SPECIAL FEATURES:
None
The Pitch
David Gordon Green takes on Stewart O’ Nan.
The Humans
Kate Beckinsale, Sam Rockwell, Nicky Katt, Jeanetta Arnett, Michael Angarano, Olivia Thirlby, Amy Sedaris and Griffin Dunne
The Nutshell
Arthur Parkinson (Michael Angarano) is growing up without his father. He pals around with his former babysitter Annie (Kate Beckinsale), while trying to help his mom keep their home together. All the while, he’s got to balance the school band with his efforts to woo the new girl at school. As the year progresses, Arthur comes to realize where his personal trouble fits into the grand scheme of things. Then, there’s Griffin Dunne.
Sam Rockwell always wanted to be a Pez dispenser.
The Lowdown
Small-town life is full of the most harrowing experiences this side of a Bosch painting. Arthur (Michael Angarano) is having to deal with his father (Griffin Dunne) deciding to walk out on the family. The dad states that he can do better in his career if he doesn’t have a wife and kid holding him down. Arthur tries to move past this, as he spends his weekends working in the town’s sole Chinese restaurant.
I would hit it with a brick. So hot. So very, very, very hawt.
The
film plays into director David Gordon Green’s personal style very well. If Pineapple Express was your only exposure to the man’s work, then you might not like what he’s selling here. Arthur’s journey is seen through the eyes of many people. We get to see his mother and father share in the turmoil caused by their separation. Then, there’s the unique figure of Annie (Kate Beckinsale). Annie is a strong feminine force in Arthur’s life that has filled in for where his mother couldn’t accomplish. She has trouble with her estranged husband, after he tried to kill himself. Now, she’s working with him to find a way to leave their child in his care.
Kate Beckinsale loves to watch simulated kitchen rape.
Adapting contemporary author Stewart O’Nan’s work is no easy feat, but Green was up to the task. From George Washington on, Green has found the quiet moments between characters and built entire films upon them. Snow Angels succeeds by using his talents to build a world of self-doubt and confusion. It’s not terribly depressing, but it’s reality-based to a fault. It draws you so far into the material that it becomes hard to remove personal experience from your viewing.
I wouldn’t say that ability makes the film touching. Touching is such a sentimental backwash concept that doesn’t play into what is shown onscreen. Snow Angels is a film about the horrible things that people do and how others make their world in its wake. Very things are as powerful on the silver screen than seeing personal lives put under the microscope. Hopefully, you can make the time to partake in this film.
There’s no real point to this. It’s just an odd shot I found.
The Package
Snow Angels comes
to DVD with a featureless offering. The A/V Quality is a lot better than I expected for a little-marketed indie film. For some odd reason, a Pan & Scan version of the film is included. It’s pretty sad that such concessions are being made more than a decade into the age of DVD. But, that’s the kind of world we inhabit. Pick this film up as a blind buy. Take a chance on something outside of the popcorn flicks.
It’s Griffin Dunne! Star of Who’s That Girl!
5 comments
Troy, total disagreement on "blind buy" status. SNOW ANGELS is a rental to me (and having seen his entire ouevre, it ranks in the lower half of his output) if only because the thematic and narrative complexities that Gordon Green decided to use from the novel are too disconnected, too fragmented as a whole throughout the whole. While I'd also appreciate anyone else who checks this film out, the more appropriate Gordon Green is essentially UNDERTOW, ALL THE REAL GIRLS, or the spectacular GEORGE WASHINGTON.
This is a terrible movie. Its slow, melodramatic lifetime movie of the week trifle. Also Rockwell gives a showy distracting out of place performance that would test any film lovers patience. Don't waste your time.
I cannot believe Rockwell gives a showy performance in a movie. He's usually so understated and restrained. When I think Rockwell, I think the epitome of stoicism. Woe is this film lover's patience.
NO film should be bought as a 'blind buy'. That way only leads to people having shelves upon shelves of stuff they have either never watched or only watched once. If your only going to watch a film once then just rent the fecker. (Of course, in some places it is cheaper to buy a DVD – I guess then it makes sense then to buy a film then give it to charity after your watch).
And come on CHUD, if we're captioning Griffin Dunne let's at least give him credit for his great work in American Werewolf or After Hours.
This is one of the better movies released this year. Probably the most accessible David Gordon Green (besides Pineapple Express, which hardly counts). A quiet, touching film. The Amy Sedaris-Kate Beckinsale relationship is worth the price of admission alone.
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