Dreams Are What Le Cinema Is For: Carnage - 2011

CARNAGE 2011lecinemadreams.blogspot.com/2012/10/carnage-2011.html

A hissing cousin of Mike Nichols’ Closer and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? in its corrosive dissection of the barelysuppressed barbarism behind mannered civility (it also recalls the delightfully vitriolic “The Family” sketchesfrom The Carol Burnett Show); Carnage is, for me, in both content and execution, absolute perfection. Adapted fromthe play God of Carnage by Yasmina Reza, the plot is not a plot so much as a setup: one day in Brooklyn BridgePark (not Hillside!) 11 year-old Zachary Cowan hits schoolmate Ethan Longstreet with a stick and causes a bruisedlip and the loss of two teeth.

Jodie Foster as Penelope Greenstreet

John C. Reilly as Michael Longstreet

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Kate Winslet as Nancy Cowan

Christoph Waltz as Alan Cowan

The well-heeled parents of the two children get together one afternoon to “discuss” what to do about it. If theyupster, retro-contemporary names of the children doesn't tip you off, one look at the tastefully decorated apartmentof the Longstreets or the affluent, Barneys New York sleek of the Cowans clarify exactly what genus of modernparent we're dealing with here.

The Longstreets and the Cowans make a "superficially fair-minded" attempt toarrive at a civilized solution to their sons' playground savagery

Although I know the boxoffice is ruled currently by caped crusaders of all stripes; but a premise like this poses morethrill potential for me than a Dark Knight/Avengers marathon. The cast, Polanski… all were enough to send me intodelirious orbit. When the theatrical trailer debuted online a full five months before its Christmas premiere, I couldbarely contain my anticipation. Happily, I was put out of my misery when a friend got me into a pre-release screening(which just happened to be the very John C. Reilly, Christopher Waltz Q & A included as a bonus feature on thefilm's DVD). Had I harbored any fears of the finished film not living up to the promise of the trailer–I hadn't–theywere dashed within the first moments of this expert and economic black comedy (the film is only 80 minutes long)when it became apparent that Polanski was going to fold me up into a neat little overexcited bundle and pack me upin his hip pocket.

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WHAT I LOVE ABOUT THIS FILMWhile I'm no fan of pop entertainments that insidiously glorify bad behavior (which pretty much takes in the entirely ofreality TV, most sitcoms, and a great many contemporary motion picture comedies); I apparently can’t get enough offilms that really stick it to those deserving targets who seek to hide their intolerance and misanthropy behind masksof bourgeois decorum.

"Luckily, some of us still have a sense of community. Right?"

In the days of the Marx Brothers, these types were the high-society matrons and stuffed shirts we longed to seebrought down a peg by a custard pie to the face. Today they’re the evolved, socially-concerned yoga mat carriers;the university-educated followers of kabbalah who clutter the weekend Farmer’s Markets; the protectors of propertyvalues in yuppie enclaves who tsk-tsk in sympathy at the unrest in the urban jungles they read about on theirKindles while waiting for their iced venti sugar-free mochas at Starbucks.What's so brilliant about Carnage is the way it recognizes how, in today's world, outside agents ofirreverent anarchy like the Marx Brothers are no longer necessary to expose these people's pretensions. No, they'retheir own worst enemies and perfectly capable of doing it to themselves.

"Morally, you're supposed to overcome your impulses, but there are times youdon't wanna overcome them."

The comedy of Carnage is in how quickly the sophisticated civility of the parents turns to gloves-off savagery whenthings don't proceed as smoothly as anticipated. Buttons are pushed, boundaries are crossed and before you knowit, the playground children begin to look like paragons of self-control in comparison.

PERFORMANCES

As much as I enjoyed Robert Altman’s ensemble pieces, the sheer sweep of his films (1978’s A Wedding featured48 characters) inevitably led to some actors–often the most fascinating–being given short shrift. The joy ofCarnage’s four-character /mixed doubles setup is that it keeps each of Polanski’s heavyhitters together onscreen forthe lion’s share of the film with the result being a satisfyingly evenhanded display of some of the most nuanced andelectrifying acting pyrotechnics I've seen in a long while. The in-deadly-earnest seriousness with which each actortackles the material makes Carnage a wildly funny black comedy of consistent laughs born of character andsituation. I've often complained that I can't find a contemporary comedy that actually makes me laugh. Carnage

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made me laugh so loud and long that it brought tears to my eyes.

EruptionThings start to go wrong in a very big way

Each cast member manages to shine while still maintaining the evenhanded feel of an ensemble piece. As a child ofthe '70s I can’t help but harbor a personal fondness for Jodie Foster, an actress whose early work I greatly admired,but whose adult output has largely been restricted to restrained performances in substandard movies (I’m one of thefew who areally didn't care for Silence of the Lambs, although there was no denying Foster gave a compellingperformance). As the most ideologically invested member of Carnage’s quartet, Foster’s descending spiral from fair-minded conciliator to ragingly moral despot is truly something to behold. I love how she progresses from being oneof those false, over-smiling "nice ladies" to an exposed nerve of indignant rage. There's not a moment when she'sonscreen when she's not absolutely a delight to watch and I've never seen such a forceful performance from her(she's also a hoot. She has a comic's timing). For my money, it's the best performance of her career.There Will be Blood: “Cruelty and splendor. Chaos. Balance.”

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THE STUFF OF FANTASYWhen I say that Carnage is the best contemporary film I've seen since Black Swan, I make the assertion secure inthe knowledge that I'm coming from a place wholly subjective. I derive so much pleasure from Carnage's malevolentsatire because I actually know these people. I daresay that I even recognize some of myself in them, but for themost part I relate to Carnage because these people are familiar. I also like the actors a great deal, making it easierfor me to spend 80 minutes with individuals I would otherwise find reprehensible. But once again, I allude to may oft-declared penchant for films of heated emotional conflict bordering on abuse (Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?; CarnalKnowledge; X, Y and Zee). As much as this film suits me, I seriously can't imagine a George and Martha bicker-festis going to be everyone's cup of tea.

Although Carnage takes place in Brooklyn, it's a satire of individuals indigenous to any big city. I've lived in LosAngeles most of my adult life. I work in Santa Monica and Pacific Palisades, two outrageously affluent communitiesfull of beauty and a surplus of sunshine. Yet on any given day, take a look at some of the people walking around andyou're not likely to see a more sour, unhappy-looking lunch of people anywhere. People walk along some of thecleanest, most pleasant streets in the world and never speak, smile, or even acknowledge one another, lost as theyare in their Smartphone worlds (a curiosity how the faces of the privileged classes so rarely reflect peace of mind).Yet these are the same folks who think of themselves as good people and pride themselves on their liberalsensibilities in spite of maids and nannies being the only people of color around, and the populace's almost frontiersense of alarm at the presence of "outsiders." To be fair, there are many authentic, genuinely decent people

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populating this social strata, but I have to say that my partner and I have been the squirmy audience to more than acouple of dinner parties amongst the civilized set that have degenerated into Carnage-like bloodbaths.

THE STUFF OF DREAMSOne of my all-time favorite directors, Roman Polanski at 79 can still do more cinematically with a single set thanmost filmmakers can accomplish with the a wealth of soundstages at their disposal. As a film that confines itselfcompletely to the living quarters of the parents of the injured child, you can add Carnage to Roman Polanski'sunofficial "Apartment Trilogy" (Repulsion, Rosemary's Baby, and The Tenant). Although Carnage lacksPolanski's trademark"peephole" shot from those films (a distortion view of a character as viewed throughan apartment door's peephole), he does treat us to this pleasing alternative by way of a cameo that's almost asmuch fun as when he taught Jack Nicholson a nasty lesson in Chinatown:

Roman Polanski makes a cameo appearance as the Longstreet's nosy neighbor.Minnie Castevet would be proud.

So, if in 2011 (a year bursting at the seams with youth-oriented film fodder) the movie industry saw fit to throw asingle bone to that tiny sector of the populace craving something more intellectually engaging than the lights, bells,and whistles distraction of CGI; I'm happy that in Polanski's Carnage, it was at least a bone with a little meat on it.

BONUS FEATURE:Click the link below to see the Roman Polanski's 4-minute short film for PRADA (honestly, even what is essentially acommercial by Roman Polanski is more entertaining than most of today's films).Roman Polanski's 2012 Short Film for PRADA - starring Helena Bonhan Carter & Ben Kingsley

Copyright © Ken Anderson

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