'Surrogates': Unsettling Social Interaction

by Brett Parker

If good science fiction can be considered a reflection of the anxieties of contemporary society, then it was only a matter of time before a movie like Surrogates would surface. In an age where human interaction is considerably skewered by the heavy popularity of social networking online, Surrogates is a glimpse into how far technology can take us into socially isolating ourselves from each other, and its rather chilling. By presenting a premise that uses robot avatars as a metaphor for our increasing technological detachment, this film has all the material to fashion itself a sci-fi masterwork. It doesn’t quite get there, but we’re very surprised with the amount of details and ideas this piece of pop actually gets right.

Surrogates suggests a future in which humans can use their brain waves to control and feel the body of human-like androids. By sitting in a computerized chair with a head monitor, a person can process their thoughts, feelings, and responses into a robot avatar that can go out into the real world and experience everything for you while you just sit at home. So instead of walking outside and experiencing life with your own body, you can send out a stronger, better-looking robotic self to do everything for you. Originally, this technology was perfected to help the physically handicapped function again in a healthy avatar, but the company that invented surrogates couldn’t resist opening it up to the consumer market. Pretty soon, surrogates sell more wildly than iPods and nearly every man and woman is experiencing life through their remote-controlled robots. Since a consumer can make their avatar any physical preference they desire (male consumers can have female surrogates, white consumers can have black surrogates, etc.), we learn that racism and sexism has rapidly decreased, making surrogate technology widely-accepted in everyday society. Only a select minority of humans, nicknamed Dreads, resist this technology and choose to live in “surrogate-free” environments controlled by a human resistance leader called The Prophet (Ving Rhames).

Surrogates are also designed to resist pain and any physical harm to its cognitive owners. This makes murder and physical violence very scarce in this future world. So it becomes very jarring when it’s discovered that a young man is killed in his home one night after his surrogate is destroyed at a night club. Somehow, the surrogate became zapped with a laser that also managed to fry the brain of its owner, something that is said to be impossible to achieve. Even stranger is the fact that the murder victim is Jarid Canter (Shane Dzicek), the son of surrogate technology’s founding father, Dr. Canter (James Cromwell). Detective Tom Greer (Bruce Willis) and his blonde-headed surrogate are on the case, even though he’s conflicted in his personal feelings about all of this technology. Yet a violent confrontation with the Dreads leaves Greer’s surrogate destroyed and incapacitated, forcing him to place his own human body back out into the real world. Can Detective Greer still keep his human composure in a landscape of advanced robots? Can he overcome those physical obstacles to solve this complex case?

I feel Surrogates is a thoughtful meditation on today’s era of vague social interactions. Through websites such as Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter, people have found a technological output to express themselves more fully than they probably could in real life. A person can be very quiet and reserved in real life, but through the anonymity of the web, they can find themselves opening up about everything from what they had for breakfast to people they’ve hooked up with. This online craze has become such a popular obsession that normal social interaction has been diminished considerably. Much has been said about how people are incompetent and pathetic nowadays when it comes to face-to-face interaction and how social awkwardness is rapidly increasing. There have barely been signs of these online outlets letting up anytime soon, making the future world of Surrogates seem not as inevitable as you’d imagine. The film shows us a glimpse of where this intense social networking can lead us, and it isn’t pretty.

The film also comments on the societal obsession with achieving the perfect body. In an age where plastic surgery is glorified on television and the married mother next door is getting breast implants, it’s no big secret that people have grown shallow yearnings to eliminate their physical imperfections at any cost. Surrogates imagines people being able to design and upgrade their robot counterparts to whatever physical specifications they desire. Therefore, almost every surrogate we see is a mega hottie (especially the female lawyers of a technology corporation). In one disturbing scene, we see Greer’s wife, Maggie (Rosamund Pike) at her day job, which can only be described as a robot salon in which instant facelifts and body tweakings can be done before lunchtime. One nice visual touch is to show the human characters contrasting exceedingly different from the look of their robot counterparts. We’re surprised, for example, to find that Greer’s partner, Peters (Rhada Mitchell) is much more elderly-looking than her beautiful avatar.

As Greer becomes something of a lone human figure in an artificially-dominating world, we realize that the character represents a contemporary yearning for truth and realism in a world that seems to disturbingly favor shallow and phony values. Willis is the right actor for such a human ideal; he has fashioned a career out of playing cynical everymen, ones who despair of lies and relentlessly dishes out reality checks. It says something that his appearance here resembles his unkempt appearance in What Just Happened. My only complaint is that Willis’ dry wit is on a scarce supply in this performance. His knack for one-liners would’ve bounced wonderfully off the creepy phonies surrounding him in this film. If Greer had the same snappy dialogue as Willis did in The Last Boy Scout, it would’ve truly elevated this film to something exceptionally effective.

Surrogates is Jonathan Mostow’s first feature film since Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines and it’s nice to see him bounce back from such a clunky enterprise with a thoughtful and confident sci-fi work. Terminator 3 had big problems, from uneasy tone shifts, redundant and watered-down action, to the fact that the film could barely stand up against the first two films at all. Mostow’s direction was so embarrassing compared to James Cameron’s masterful work. I expected him to take this complex universe for granted in the same way he did the Terminator sequel, but I’m happy to report that he brings an entertaining grace and curiosity to the material. A lot of questions we have about Surrogate technology do in fact get answered and Mostow doesn’t shy away from going after some of the film’s deeper ideals. Of course, this universe isn’t as sublimely crafted as the future worlds of Minority Report or Children of Men, but Mostow brings a knowingness and competence to the material that spares Surrogates from being another piece of cookie-cutter sci-fi trash.

Even though it’s lacking in humor and the mystery plot turns out to be a dud, Surrogates is a film made up of good ideas and knows how to present them in an entertaining enough package. It’s more rewarding to have a sci-fi film generate discussions of philosophical reflections instead of action scene dissections, and that’s probably the highest compliment I could pay to this movie. So the next time you look at your facebook page, think about the next couple of steps up from that technology and you’ll realize the unsettling place Surrogates is coming from.

Patrick Swayze: Highlights From A Memorable Career

by Brett Parker

It seems like most leading men of today’s cinema have to choose between being sensitive romantic heroes or testosterone-fueled tough guys. Patrick Swayze was that rare actor who could convey both of these masculine ideals with the utmost conviction. Armed with his chiseled Americana looks and polished physical grace, he could be a complete sweetheart to the ladies in one film and pound on bad guys mercilessly in another. Reflecting on his career, it’s hard to pin down Swayze as a lover or a fighter.

Heartthrobs are a dime a dozen in Hollywood, and most can work their whole careers without obtaining the kind of unforgettable roles Swayze delivered to us so skillfully over the years. As Swayze passed away on September 14th, 2009 after a battle with pancreatic cancer, we realized that he has given us certain films that can be appreciated by moviegoers from across all generations. When you think of his most memorable works, you realize that they don’t belong to a specific era or age group but are appreciated by fans of all ages. Dirty Dancing, for example, is a film cherished by everyone from 14-year-old girls to 60-year-old men.

From a young age, Swayze studied dancing and ballet, mostly under the dance studio ran by his mother, Patsy Swayze. He continued his training in New York City and even landed professional gigs on Broadway. He seemed on his way to a prosperous career in ballet until he made a fateful crossover into films with the rest becoming Hollywood history. Perhaps his early dance career signified why he would become so compelling in his film endeavors, for Swayze always brought a unique feeling of presence and movement to every role he inhabited. Even if he found himself in obvious turkeys, he still possessed an aura of dignity and a respect towards his fellow performers that any dancer can fully understand.

Below is a selection of highlights from Swayze’s filmography that not only helped make him an icon but also displayed hidden notes we didn’t know he had. Some were big hits, some were cult classics, and some failed to make a blip on the pop culture radar, but all of them helped to prove that Swayze was undoubtedly a multi-layered movie star:

The Outsiders (1983)
Francis Ford Coppola’s poignant adaptation of S.E. Hinton’s teenage novel overflowed with untapped fresh faces from the 1980s. In telling the heartbreaking story of underprivileged juvenile delinquents caught up in violent complications, Coppola employed up-and-coming raw talents who each employed mega-wattage edge and charisma. Swayze was amongst this remarkable talent pool, playing one of the older and more level-headed delinquents. His centered masculinity and grounded focus made his character stand out well in this grand canvas of talent. He proved very strongly, like almost every other male in the cast, that he had what it takes to be a certified movie star.

Red Dawn (1984)
There are few action films I can think of that possess a startling immediacy as shocking as Red Dawn does. Within the film’s first minutes, Communist soldiers parachute onto U.S. soil and begin exterminating American citizens, no questions asked. The plot follows a group of terrified high school students who flee into the mountains and plot to fight back against this enemy invasion. Swayze plays Jed, one of the more strong-willed teenagers of this makeshift guerilla unit. Although his star was still on the rise, Swayze proved that he had the smarts and the gravitas to pull of a convincing action role. While constantly displaying a seething intensity and mental toughness, Swayze proved early on that he wasn’t just a pretty face.

Dirty Dancing (1987)
“Nobody puts Baby in the corner” boasted Johnny Castle to his lady love’s parents, and women everywhere knew they were looking at a romantic hero for the ages. Dirty Dancing pitted Swayze in his breakthrough role as bad boy dancer Castle, who helps the shy, upper-class Baby (Jennifer Grey) find her inner-free spirit through uninhibited dancing. Swayze possessed a dynamite mix of rebellion and romanticism that helped make the role, like James Dean in Rebel Without A Cause, a heartthrob symbol for female fans across all generation gaps. Dirty Dancing is destined to be the signature film Swayze will always be remembered for, thanks in no small part to the sensuous electricity he generated with the loveable Grey. Not only did Swayze use this film to show off his lifetime experience of dancing skills, but also his singing skills by co-writing and performing the soundtrack’s hit, “She’s Like the Wind.”

Road House (1989)
One of the most entertaining guilty pleasure flicks of all time, it’s the cheese-fest you love to laugh at. Road House places Swayze in the wildly fun role of Dalton, the best bar bouncer ever who is hired to clean up the corruption surrounding a Missouri bar called the Double Deuce. You can say what you want about this over-the-top fluff, but I think its fun as all living hell. Very few films can walk such a peculiar tight rope between shameless action melodrama and shrewd self-parody while remaining so damn entertaining. What’s most remarkable is how Swayze is able to retain a certain dignity and coolness throughout the film’s wild shenanigans. He’s able to play up both his romantic and macho strengths while honoring the ludicrous mythic stature his role requires. It’s not easy for an actor to convey a detached seriousness while being completely in on a film’s goofy fun, but Swayze pulls it off and makes Road House a Wildman romp to remember.

Ghost (1990)
This supernatural tale of everlasting love and impending danger went on to become Swayze’s highest-grossing film ever as well as one of the biggest tearjerkers of all time, garnering an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture in the process. Swayze’s romantic depths were in full force in the role of Sam Wheat, a murdered accountant who watches over his wife Molly (Demi Moore) in the form of a ghost. Sam not only despairs over the intimate void within Molly’s broken heart, but must also devise a way to protect her from his murderer (Rick Aviles) who still stalks around his former life. Not only was Ghost a clever nail-biter, but also an enormously touching meditation on eternal love across the threshold of death. Swayze’s intense and sensationally heartfelt performance helped to make this film one of the most effective love stories of the modern era.

Point Break (1991)
One of the greatest action pictures I’ve ever seen, this is easily my personal choice for Swayze’s best film and performance. Point Break tells the exciting story of a young FBI agent (Keanu Reeves) who infiltrates a gang of bank-robbing surfers high on adrenaline. As Bodhi, the Zen-like leader of these dangerous thrill seekers, Swayze had never been cooler or more charismatic. It’s easy to picture countless other actors portraying Bodhi as a cuckoo sociopath, but what’s surprising is how persuasive and real Swayze makes his character’s convictions. His free-spirited philosophies make a surprisingly strong counter-argument to Reeve’s strict views of hard justice. What’s just as impressive as his centeredness is Swayze’s willingness to let his every nerve and tick fall extremely in sync with the dangerous nuances of the film’s plot. This is a thrilling masterwork that is not to be missed.

Tall Tale: The Unbelievable Adventures of Pecos Bill (1995)
Tall Tale was a Disney flop that rapidly opened and closed in the wintertime season of 1995, but I happened to buy a ticket to the film one Sunday afternoon when I was still 10-years-old. Even then, I found the film to be a surprisingly fun and touching throwback to the simple myths of old-fashioned storytelling. Swayze shows up as tall tale hero Pecos Bill, a tornado-riding cowboy who teams up with fellow folk heroes Paul Bunyan (Oliver Platt) and John Henry (Roger Aaron Brown) to help a young boy (Nick Stahl) save his family’s farm. Hiding behind a desperado’s mustache and shabby bandit attire, Swayze truly did disappear into his role, displaying a rare playfulness and wisdom we hadn’t seen before. We’d never really seen Swayze play such a plucky and mythic role, but that’s what made it all the more compelling to watch.

Donnie Darko (2001)
The mysterious and ambiguous Donnie Darko is regarded to this day as one of the great cinematic puzzles of the silver screen. The film’s intrigue is only heightened by the quirky and knowing unease of the grand cast of characters. As the teenage Donnie Darko (Jake Gyllenhaal) wrestles with alarming and ominous visions of doom, he encounters Swayze in the role of Jim Cunningham, a cheerful and phony self-help guru harboring disturbing secrets. Swayze crafted one of his funniest roles here by pushing his sentimental sensibilities towards self-parody and wringing out absurdist notes from his movie star image. It’s rare to see Swayze revel so cheerfully in ridiculousness…and creepiness.

While the later part of his career lacked the high-wattage momentum of his earlier works, Swayze still worked consistently and professionally in TV, film, and on-stage up until his recent death. Even though he had a serious brush with alcoholism and personal tragedies, you’d be hard-pressed to find any performer or filmmaker having anything negative to say about Swayze. Like his on-screen characters, Swayze also conveyed an intelligible and level-headed sense of staying strong to your values and honoring what needs to be done. The fact that he married his teenage sweetheart, Lisa Niemi, and stayed with her until the day he died might also hint that Swayze was every bit the true romantic and enduring sweetheart he portrayed so convincingly on the screen. If movie star images can in fact reflect the real life people they represent, then perhaps that makes Swayze one of the most strong-willed and heartfelt actors the modern era has ever known.

'9': Small Characters, Big Adventure

by Brett Parker

You keep expecting 9 to break out into a masterful parable regarding humanity yet it seems perfectly content with just being technically-dazzling eye candy. This strange and solemn tale of mutant rag dolls who combat evil robots in a post-apocalyptic landscape feels ripe with fitting metaphors, yet writer-director Shane Acker makes very little effort to flesh out this creative tale into something meaningful. Of course this film is rich with darkly intriguing animation, but we seriously wonder why there isn’t much more of a point to it all.

As the film opens, the Earth is in shambles. Every building is destroyed. There isn’t a single human being in sight. A small rag doll labeled #9 (Elijah Wood) begins to walk, talk, and breathe like an actual living person. He is stitched together with a zipper for a mid-section and tiny goggle eyes. How did this fabricated man come into existence? And how did he come to inhabit such a grim environment? #9 sets out among the ruins to investigate and discovers 8 other stitch people made before him who’ve been fighting for survival. #5 (John C. Reilly) is a nervous survivalist, #7 (Jennifer Connelly) is a highly-skilled warrior, #3-4 are twin researchers, #8 (Fred Tatasciore) is an ill-tempered brute, #6 (Crispin Glover) is a kooky artist of crucial information, #2 (Martin Landau) is a thoughtful optimist, while #1 (Christopher Plummer) is the negative leader brimming with fear.

#9 learns from the others that humanity has been wiped out by evil robots that were constructed by a mysterious scientist (Alan Oppenheimer). The robots were constructed for good yet they developed their own evil agenda and attacked the world with full force. Most of the stitch men spend their days hiding in protection, but #9 begins to wonder if there’s a purpose in their being and if the robots can be defeated. This sets the team on a journey in which they discover the secrets to their origins and what it takes to reclaim the world from sinister machines.

Most stories of post-apocalyptic despair usually take place in a future setting, yet many of the visuals throughout the film suggest something of a 1940s setting. Scenes of flashbacks and newsreel footage strongly give off a World War II vibe and we suspect this grim tale of being a play on anxieties from that era. Perhaps the film means to reflect the plights of wartime refugees in the face of overwhelming enemies, suggesting the human courage inherent in even the smallest of oppressed groups. Of course anytime you’re dealing with giant machines crushing humanity, you’re inviting the age-old metaphor of society vs. evolving technology. In this age of iPhones and Twitter obsessions, perhaps these little men are expressing our dwarfism in the face of suffocating technological innovations.

But the film’s central conflict can represent anything, really. The problem is that Acker never penetrates any serious depths to flesh out more sophisticated themes. The film is based on his Oscar-nominated short of the same name from 2005, but it seems like only the action has been expanded instead of the ideas. Most apocalyptic tales are filled with attentive details that help flesh out a vivid bleakness within the atmosphere (remember the horrifyingly organic world Children of Men painted?). It seems like most of these end-of-the-world films have carefully constructed morality lessons to convey. With this in mind, we’re surprised by how lightweight 9 feels. Acker appears to be saying that the human spirit is worth preserving, although it’s hardly explained how that can happen simply with rag dolls mucking about endless ruins.

The film’s skilled animation is the best reason to see the film and is ultimately its saving grace. The Animation and Art Design departments have really brought a sinister detail and brooding aura to the film’s look that makes it more lived-in and enthralling than most animated ventures. While this crumbling wasteland isn’t as absorbing or creative as WALL-E’s end-of-the-world universe, it’s still a visual feast worth relishing. The little stitch men are truly an astonishing work of whimsical creativity while the evil robots are ominously grand in appearance. Even though the film denies us an intellectual satisfaction, the action junkies within will most likely be fulfilled, for the rag doll’s adventures have a dangerous bounce that keeps things moving at an exciting-enough rhythm.

When it comes to terrifyingly vivid post-apocalyptic atmospheres, I’ve seen more interesting. When it comes to big and grotesque evil robots, I’ve seen scarier. Concerning both of these threads at the same time, 9 is way better than Terminator Salvation, and that’s quite a boost. If you like compelling animated landscapes with a higher economy of thought than Monsters vs. Aliens, 9 just might be for you. If you want a stunningly bleak end-of-the-world tale with deep revelations about the human condition, skip this and rent Children of Men immediately.

'Extract': More Laughs From the Workplace

by Brett Parker

Howard Hawks, one of the greatest of Hollywood auteurs, once made a John Wayne western called El Dorado that heavily resembled elements from his earlier masterwork, Rio Bravo. So similar were the two in plotting and characters, that the film could be considered an unofficial remake. Hawks never went into heavy detail about these similarities, simply stating “when you find out a thing that goes pretty well, you mine as well do it again.”

That seems to be what Mike Judge is doing with Extract, his latest comedy which bears a strong resemblance to his cult classic Office Space. Both films centered on frustrated working men who juggle the stresses of the everyday workplace while dealing with personal angst. Both films gave their hero a stoner best bud, a beautiful girl who inspires self-liberation, and a socially-awkward loser in their midst. Very rarely is the copy as strong as the original, as is certainly the case with Extract, but at least we get some decent laughs out of the deal.

The film centers on the life of Joel (Jason Bateman), the owner of a food flavoring extract plant. Joel’s company is on the merge of a very lucrative merger when all personal and professional hell breaks loose. The floor manager of the company (Clifton Collins, JR.) loses his testacies in a factory accident and threatens the company with a lawsuit. Joel’s wife, Suzie (Kristen Wiig), has lost all physical interest in the marriage and constantly turns Joel down for sex. A beautiful con artist named Cindy (Mila Kunis) sets her sights on the factory and stirs up considerable trouble, especially enticing Joel with the idea of cheating on his wife. Plus always lingering is Joel’s relentlessly annoying neighbor, Nathan (David Koechner).

Joel attempts to deal with all the storms in his life with hilariously clunky results. Joel would feel guilty about cheating on Suzie with Cindy unless she cheated first, leading him to hire a gigolo (Dustin Milligan) to seduce her. He tries to deal with the injury lawsuit reasonably, but must deal with an intimidating and crazed attorney (Gene Simmons) in the process. Plus he inadvertently experiements with the drugs through the influence of his scruffy bartender buddy, Dane (Ben Affleck). Through all this, Joel considers the idea of courting Cindy, although her shady motives threaten to come out sooner or later.

Extract, like Office Space, also wants to be an observant dissection of a 9 to 5 world basked in Judge’s trademark comic idiocy. The difference this time is that Extract focuses on a character from management while Office Space concerned itself with a cubicle underling. It’s rather thoughtful that Judge uses his comedy to show us both sides of the work force, the only problem is that Extract isn’t as focused on its main idea as Office Space was. The plot is way too eager to run off into outside sitcom tangents that distract from the central business at hand. Luckily for this film, these tangents turn out to be very funny. When the film does in fact touch on the stresses of being in a management position, it can be rather observant and empathetic. Yet the film lacks a wholly solitude of significance, it holds together only in episodic spats of humor.

In the central role of Joel, Jason Bateman proves to be competent but not compelling. I don’t really think too highly of Bateman as a comic actor. He lacks considerable depth and comic charm. He gives one-note performances with minimal expressions. At one point in the film, Joel becomes zonked from horse tranquilizers, yet he acts no different from any other normal moment in the film. He seems afraid to push himself beyond limits of normalcy towards zany height of silliness, nor do we feel he’d be capable of doing so even if he had the courage. There’s rarely any juice in his characterizations. We value actors like Vince Vaughn and Ben Stiller, for example, because they aren’t afraid to revel in ridiculousness by throwing self-preservation straight into the fire.

The saving grace of the film lies in the supporting cast, who prove to be aces in subtle, observant comedy. Koechner nails every minute detail we’ve ever noticed about clueless and talkative suburbanites. Simmons makes us realize that intimidating creepiness can be hilarious in unexpected ways. A real discovery in this film is Matt Schulze (you may recall him from The Fast and the Furious) as Dane’s dealer who scores Joel some good weed. Schulze does a frantic and aggressive take on the stoner archetype that is utterly uproarious. He seems destined to be one of the most memorable stoners to ever grace the silver screen. The film’s best performance comes from Ben Affleck, who hides behind a scrubby beard and curls to prove that he has a strong gift for subtle humor. Most of the film’s funniest lines flow straight from his character, and Affleck nails his character’s slacker wisdom with a surprising conviction.

Office Space is a comedy that means so much to people not only for its big laughs but for its intelligible and harsh criticisms of the everyday workplace. Almost anyone who’s ever worked a Joe job in a cubicle saw this film as a bruising reservoir of hilarious truth. Extract wants to be the same kind of sympathetic haven for upper-management, but it gets sidetracked by too many loose comic scenarios. It holds up though, simply because we go to comedies for laughs and this one delivers them consistently. It’s a sillyy love letter to any boss whose ever had to deal with idiots, and if there’s one subject Mike Judge knows well, its idiocy.

'Taking Woodstock': What the Center of the Universe Looked Like

by Brett Parker

Taking Woodstock is both simultaneously a lighthearted play on Ang Lee’s usual themes and a film that probably would’ve been better off without Ang Lee’s direction. In telling the story of how the legendary music festival inadvertently came to be, Lee has found a refreshingly delightful fit into his ideals of repressed outsiders. The problem is that we feel the film, which is presented as a zany comedy, never reaches its full potential of unhinged hilarity. Here’s a movie about the wildest party in American history and it’s nowhere near as wild as you’d expect it to be.

The movie opens in the Catskills of upstate New York in the summer of 1969. A young interior designer named Elliot Teichberg (Demetri Martin) has left behind a job in New York City to help his family out with their shabby motel business called the El Monaco. His father Jake (Henry Goodman) is a quiet lay-about while his mother Sonia (Imelda Staunton) is a greedy firecracker who takes awful care of the motel. The grotesque filthiness of the motel puts their little business in financial jeopardy, causing the local bank to threaten with foreclosure. This leaves Elliot searching desperately for ways to raise serious money and save his parents’ business.

It is brought to Elliot’s attention that the neighboring town of Wallkill has denied a concert permit to Woodstock Ventures, a group that wants to organize a rock festival for the hippie crowd, a crowd the locals have a deep hatred for. Seeing this concert as salvation from financial ruin, Elliot uses his powers as the head of the local Chamber of Commerce to plant the concert in the neighboring town of White Lake on the dairy acreage of farmer Max Yasgur (Eugene Levy). While the hippie attention the concert will attract undoubtedly irritates the locals, Elliot figures his business will flourish immensely from all the traveling rock fans arriving into town.

Within days, the Woodstock organizers begin constructing a giant soundstage on Yasgur’s property and thousands of hippies begin their descent on upstate New York. The Teichbergs’ business seriously blooms from all the attention, but no one could anticipate just how large this event would turn out to be. Word gets out that the concert could in fact be free, and this causes rock fans from all over the country to make their way towards this giant festival in this small town. So many fans show up that the New York State Thruway temporarily shuts down. Pretty soon, most of upstate New York turns into a giant flower child wonderland in which countless hippies indulge in heavy sex, drugs, and rock ‘n roll. Beaming from his newfound financial flourishing, Elliot decides to partake in this historic event, only to unearth deep truths hidden within himself.

Ang Lee (Brokeback Mountain, Hulk) is a director who specializes in tales of outsiders trying to function in a society that hopelessly suppresses them. So what would be a more appropriate subject matter for him than the flower children of Woodstock? Lee shows Elliot and the hippies coming under serious fire from the locals. Like most of Lee’s oppressors of change, they are staggeringly obtuse and immovable in their stance. At one point, some local bullies spray disgusting anti-Semitic remarks on the Teichbergs’ property. Yet this is one of Lee’s more hopeful and optimistic portrayals of outsider plights. The hippies are in such large numbers and high spirits that their radical sunshine overcomes whatever negative energy haunts the film. Even when Elliot comes out of the closet and realizes he’s gay, he faces little oppression for his new stance, a rare occurrence for a Lee protagonist.

Since the script supports strong themes Lee has dealt with eloquently before, you’d think he’d have masterful control over the film’s tone. Yet Lee’s direction may have skewered a zany hilarity we demand from this material. Actors that have worked with Lee in the past revealed in interviews that he is a very serious director who keeps an almost morbid atmosphere on films sets. I wonder if he created such vibes during the filming of this comedy, for that would explain the sluggish and flat nature of most of the film’s earlier gags. We keep expecting the film’s comic charms to pop with a ferocious energy, yet they drudge through the plot, as if the movie doesn’t realize how truly funny it really is. Even Martin, who is a very gifted stand-up comedian, is never really allowed to play up his comic talents the way Robin Williams could in a straight-forward role. It’s nice to see a dramatic director try their hand at comedy, but perhaps the deeply poetic Lee was wrong for this material. Perhaps a director like Ben Stiller could better serve the film’s wild spirit, for he specializes in goofballs clashing with normal society and pop culture gone berserk.

Things begin to pick up significantly when the film’s second half rolls around, in which the concert goes underway and Elliot attempts a trek towards the main stage. Woodstock was such a visually gripping event that there’s no way a filmmaker like Lee could possibly mess it up. Most of the film’s golden moments show up in this section, especially a beautiful moment where Elliot can hear the concert’s music beginning in the distance across a lake. If you like grand one-take sequences, there’s a great one here where Elliot is driven through the concert’s traffic jam on the back of a police motorcycle, observing all the various activities and expressions of the countless rock fans. And just wait till you see Elliot’s acid trip, in which he visualizes the concert’s crowd transforming into a giant ocean. Even though we question Lee’s use of split-screen techniques and his decision to deny us the musical acts, we feel he does the nature of the event true justice.

The Woodstock concert is a topic of such endless interest that it seems extremely difficult to make a bad movie on the subject. Indeed, Taking Woodstock overcomes its shortcomings to actually be a worthy film on the concert’s aura. Lee stumbles considerably, but in the end we realize that he honors his auteurist ideals satisfactorily while conveying the weight and significance of the concert’s impact. Almost all of the performances are quirky and likeable, with Liev Schreiber as a transvestite security guard and Jonathan Groff as a free-spirited concert organizer being the stand-outs. We wish there were funnier jokes and more music to relish, but in the end we’re won over by the fact that this was one party we wish we could’ve crashed!