film notes
Quick thoughts on Syndromes and a Century and Waitress, two films I saw recently.
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It’s there in the way that Dr. Nohng uncovers and studies the tattoo just below the collarbone of the sullen young man suffering from carbon monoxide poisoining; the same could be said about the loose, casual banter between a dentist who after hours is an accomplished musician and a young Buddhist monk who once wished to be a DJ. Ditto the comfortable, sun-dappled picnic shared by Dr. Toa and Pa Jane. None of these sequences are necessarily erotic, but there’s something a bit charged about them which produces an interesting effect as all three probably convey a greater degree of intimacy and personal understanding than we ever witness between members of the opposite sex (except perhaps the completely sexless reminiscing between Dr. Nohng and elderly Dr. Wan). What this means I have no idea, but I think it’s interesting to note that the central, elusive relationship with homoerotic undertones in Tropical Malady is carried over and multiplied less overtly several times over in Syndromes and a Century. Isn’t that, well, a bit odd considering the film was inspired by the courtship of the directors parents?
Representative images of interaction:
As opposed to:
Do you see the difference I see?
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It seems to have been considered last year’s equivalent to the feel-good indie financial summer success story, which kind of baffles me as I can’t think of another widely released film in recent memory that has presented a group of characters who are as relentlessly unlikable as the ones presented in Waitress (2007). All are stereotypes and more often than not rather ugly ones, even the supposed “heroine” and “hero” of the story (Kerri Russell and Nathan Fillion, respectively) who are more than a bit infuriating in their relentless wishy-washiness. Granted, most of the actors manage to generate a tremendous amount of audience good-will through performances that give delicate shades and facets to the strereotypes they are saddled with, which is probably the very thing that lends the film the odd, rather uneasy equilibrium is eventually discovers. Not a great film but one inevitably labeled “interesting,” if only because there’s no other word to really describe it.
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