Customer Reviews

Laurel Canyon [VHS]

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(27)
3 star:		(23)
2 star:		(11)
1 star:		(12)

 

 

I've always loved Frances McDormand. She completely gets into every role she plays. And in this film she's better than ever. Laurel Canyon is an area of Los Angeles where only the people who have "made it" live She's cast as Jane, a successful record producer in her mid forties. She lives her life with constant energy and enthusiasm. She smokes illegal substances and eats vegetarian. She looks great too, and is a "babe" in every sense of the word. We soon learn she has a long list of former lovers, both male and female. But currently she's involved with a young British rocker, played by Allesandro Nivola, and their couplings burn up the screen.

Her son, Sam, on the other hand, played by Christian Bale, is exactly the opposite. He's just graduated from Harvard Medical School and is engaged to Alex, played by Kate Beckinsale, who is not only a doctor, but also a research scientist. They're supposed to borrow Jane's home while he completes his residency in a local hospital, but it doesn't work out that way. Jane stays in the house, which is also a recording studio, to finish up a record with the rock band.

At the hospital, Sam meets a fellow doctor, Sara, played by Natascha McElhone and there is immediate electricity between them. And Alex spends her days in the house where she finds it impossible to concentrate on her dissertation and is welcomed downstairs to hang out with Jane and the band. Soon she's indulging in Jane's lifestyle. Eventually, she finds herself in a unique romantic scene.

Conflict is inevitable of course, and the film plays out in a predictable way. And, when I think of it, the storyline is a little silly. But I loved the fact that the film was about an unconventional lifestyle. And I was amazed at the intensity of Frances McDormand's performance, which called for a full gamut of emotions. She made every scene in which she appeared sparkle and all other scenes paled in comparison.

The film was written and directed by Lisa Cholodenko and even though the film is set in the present, there was a clear echo of the 1970s and the forces behind the rock music industry.

Very enjoyable film. I highly recommend it.

The story surrounds Sam's (Christian Bale) mother Jane (Frances McDormand) who is a successful pleasure-seeking record producer in California. Sam escaped the hedonistic life style of his mother to seek a more responsible spot in the world through attending the Harvard Medical School from which he has recently graduated with a emphasis in psychiatry. In addition, Sam has furthered his rebellion against his mothers life style by proposing to a beautiful Harvard scientist, Alex (Kate Beckinsale). The perfectionist Alex moves with Sam to California where she can work on her thesis in regards to fruit flies and Sam can begin his residency in psychiatry. In order to save some money Sam and Alex move temporarily into Jane's house, which is a haven for drugs, sex, and rock-n-roll. Alex, who grew up in a rigid life style with country clubs and specific societal rules, are fascinated by Jane's life style and begins to explore the world that she never has experienced, which is about to lead into an emotionally painful journey.

Laurel Canyon is a terrific film about inhibitions, choices, and love, which Lisa Cholodenko embodies through the different characters. Cholodenko depicts the personal rules of the characters through social interactions between the characters as well as in the mise-en-scene. These personal rules are about to be broken as the characters are set in a society where rules are not the norm or wanted. This leads to interpersonal conflicts as it will most certainly hurt the individuals in the social setting in which they live. The conflicts lead the audience to ponder what is acceptable and desirable in our contemporary society where many different norms exists. In essence these norms are scrutinized through the fine direction and performance by an excellent cast.

it's not "edge of your seat" or dripping with romance, but its good. good, in that you can FEEL it. the tension, the issues, the past, all of it. kate b. is OKAY, her guy is okay. their generic relationship is okay. but, i think its real.

Now, lets look at francis. SHE, ONCE AGAIN, IS INCREDIBLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! if for no other reason you rent this movie, RENT IT TO SEE FRANCIS!!!!!! could she be any more real???? what an actress!!!!! actually, what a SOUL. i mean, what a soul she must have to pull from (to play these roles). rent this movie. she, alone, makes it worth it.

This film represents the best in independent filmmaking. Instead of formulaic plot that's heavy on action and skimpy on the acting, what you get in this film are stellar performances and an interesting story, a sort of look into the complicated life of a rather conservative medical student, Sam (Christian Bale) and his girlfriend Alex (Kate Beckinsale, who looks great as usual) and his somewhat embarrassed relations with his free spirited Record producer mother (Frances McDormand). While there is little in plot, it hardly matters in a film like this, as the performances take you away into a world most have never seen, namely a record producer's studio in the Hollywood Hills (Laurel Canyon). The best scenes in this film are when Ian (brilliantly played by Alessandro Nivola in a very convincing British accent) is recording two songs, receiving instant feedback by Alex and Jane (McDormand). I absolutely love the songs he sings ("Shade and Honey" and "Someday I Will Treat You Good") and rushed out to buy the soundtrack cd after seeing this film in the theater. In fact, the entire soundtrack is good, and that's another reason why I love this film.

Frances McDormand's performance as a mother more interested in producing a record album than connecting with her son at his personal interests is outstanding and Oscar-worthy. She's so free spirited and independent, that it wasn't difficult for me to see why the younger Ian was attracted to her in the first place. She does have her limits though, when Ian wants a threesome with her and Alex, she breaks the mood and explains to him privately why it just wouldn't work. Alessander Nivola also has the best performance of his career, fooling me into thinking that he was a British actor, not an American one. He does that great of a job with the accent, and apparently, he's really singing too. As I watched this film, I was hoping that Alex would dump Sam and end up with him, because they seem well suited to one another.

Sam is the character I felt the most out of place, as I couldn't figure him out. He flirts with a fellow Med student, almost to the point of cheating, and we just don't get to see much chemistry between Sam and Alex, only that there is something standing in the way of those two, which probably had little to do with the thesis she struggled to write in Jane's house. The film ends without any kind of resolution, but its okay in a film like this. Independent films work because they don't follow standard plot rules, so long as the performances are strong (as they are in this film) and the story is compelling. The ending left me wanting more, but that's better than an ending where I wished they cut it down some. The musical choices on the soundtrack is the last ingredient that compels me to give this film five stars. It is a film that I watch regularly (every couple of months or so) and never get tired of doing so. This film has a certain "je ne sais quoi" quality I can't really describe, but compels me to watch over and over. The director deserves huge kudos for making a film like this, one that focuses on the characters and gives us a small slice of their lives, as incomplete as it is. Human relationships are often too complicated to be solved in a two hour movie, so I'm glad the director leaves the ending the way it is, with Sam taking a much needed mental health day to clear his head.

I would like to preface this review by saying that I do not watch movies like this one. I would buy this movie except where do i put it on my shelf? Between Pulp Fiction and Gladiator? How can i admit to my friends that i liked this movie enough to buy it? anyway here is why i did like it.

No one has ever made a more entertaining casualty free movie. Well, first things first. This movie is about an engaged couple that moves from the east coast to California to stay with the guy's mom who works out of her house producing her boyfriends rock album. I think most peopple watching will expect an immediate culture clash between these hard-working yuppies and the drug abusing musicians but that's not what immediately happens. Its like Ed Norton says in "Fight Club", "people will do anything to avoid a fight"

The interesting thing about this film is that is juxtaposes the screw-ups with the non screw-ups and as any college kid knows, the life of the screw up is very appealing. What made this juxtaposition great was the awkwardness. I've never seen awkwardness so well depicted on the screen, especially in the scene in the car between Christian Bale and Natascha McElhone, which is the first scene in the movie that really made perk up. Until that scene I was skeptical about the movie.

Then, I ask you have you ever been so mad that you have almost no control of what you say and words just come streaming out of your mouth (many of them swears) and in the end you say about one third of the things you wanted to, but the other things were just casualties of your own emotional turbulence. Domestically I think many of us have, and there's a scene of that in this movie, and it was one of the most intense scenes I've ever seen. Christian Bale just erupts. And many actors would have simply gotten angry, they wouldn't have exposed the deep rooted fear this character has of screwing up. There is not another actor working today who could've have made this scene more electrifying (perhaps Daniel Day-Lewis) It is this scene that the movie builds toward and works hard to earn, and its success or failure held the film's meaning in the balance. It did not let me down. I will say I believe Christian Bale to be one of the finest actors making movies today.

Immediately drawn to anything with the name, "Christian Bale" in it, I saw "Laurel Canyon" as soon as it came out in theatres. I wasn't quite sure what to expect, and the opening scene left me a bit skeptical. I'm not usually one for the artsy-independent films, but there was something about this one. The cinematography is beautiful and the characters are engaging and likeable, despite their vices.

After seeing the film, I have to admit that I was a bit shocked at some of the things that happened, but after thinking about it, the only way I can describe this film is, "absolutely beautiful." Everything about it is rhetorically savvy, with intelligently written parts, and wonderfully developed characters. It is almost as if the creators did a "mind experiment" in which well-developed characters, that we can relate to, are placed in uncharacteristic environments so that we may see the implications of one's actions and upbringing.

"Laurel Canyon's" music is superb; I reccommend the soundtrack if you enjoyed the songs.

I also strongly reccommend this film to anyone who: (a) enjoys indie films, (b) enjoys artistic films, (c) is attracted to beauty, and (d) likes to watch meaningful, thought-provoking films. Excellent, simply marvelous!

I loved this movie. It isn't the average depiction of mother-son and boyfriend-girlfriend relationships. Introduces Sam (Christian Bale) and Alex (Kate Beckinsale) when they are in the middle of their relationship, which seems to be very stable and predictable and boring. The engaged couple both are attracted to other people and other lifestyles. The perfect portrayal of humans' nature to want both stability and spontinaety at the same time and how we all try to achieve both in our lives. Deals realistically with human emotion and desire, in the midst of temptation. Frances McDormand provides an awesome performance.

If you were privy to the Laurel Canyon lifestyle in the 60s and 70s, this film is like a retro shock with all the old familiar haunts still there, and the inevitable lost generation of 20 somethings wandering the deer trail lanes of traffic to hang with the musicians. At least, this is how the premise of the 2002 version of the canyon lifestyle is reflected. Between the generation of hippie organic mama (Frances McDormand) and her predictably uptight conservative son (Christian Bale) and his uber egghead grad student girlfriend (Kate Beckinsale) are the silences of a parent who did her thing and a son who didn't. Literally caught between them is the luscious Beckinsale, who comes to enjoy the hedonism the mother's world of music and a young lover (Allessando Nivola) present. She likes the pot, pool parties, and 3-somes while her fiance dallies with the sublimated lust for a professional colleague who is more his cup of straight-laced tea. His resentment of mom's ability to be cool and productive clash with his inability to make decisions about his own lifestyle choice, a serious wife in training, medical practice, and the possibility of affairs with other women. He is as much drawn to sin and swinging as Kate. The tension of the six characters makes the story of kids and parents failure to communicate as old as the perennial hills. Great soundtrack with vocals by Nivola and recording sessions are added plus. McDormand is one of the finest character actors around, and she rises to the challenge of taking back seat to Beckinsale's beauty. Nevertheless, McDormand steals the show everytime she is onscreen. We don't care about the young couple, we care about the three-way between mother, her lover, and her son's lover...that's Hollywood!

LAUREL CANYON, a drama, is more than just a little reminiscent of 1994's SIRENS, a comedy. In the latter, Hugh Grant plays a newly-minted Anglican cleric of the Victorain era posted to Australia, where his bishop assigns him the task of prevailing upon a celebrated local artist (Sam Neill) to elevate his canvasses out of the gutter by leaving out the bare-naked ladies. Arriving at the artist's tropical residence, the minister finds the sultry lushness of the surroundings exceeded only by that of several nude models, one of whom is Elle Macpherson. While the cleric valiantly keeps a stiff upper lip in the face of so much nubile flesh, his sexually repressed wife (Tara Fitzgerald) is soon seduced by the sensual atmosphere that pervades the place and is presided over by the Neill character, a sort of benignly detached Hugh Hefner type.

In this film, Dr. Sam, M.D. (Christian Bale) and his fiancee, Dr. Alex, M.D. (Kate Beckinsale), both graduates of Harvard Med, travel to Los Angeles to temporarily take up abode in the vacant residence of the former's mother, Jane (Frances McDormand), while Alex does a First Year Resident gig in the psychiatric unit of a local hospital and Alex finishes up her Ph.D. dissertation on the genomics of fruit flies. However, upon arriving at the home in LAUREL CANYON, the two find the place still occupied. Jane, a record producer and aging Flower Child, is using the location to put together a new disc with a British rock band. Uptight Sam, who describes his Mom as dysfunctional, is not overly surprised to find her presiding over an environment of marijuana, casual sex, and rock 'n' roll - the traditional California dangers (according to traditional mothers everywhere) to virtue and clean living. But there's nothing Sam can do on a daily basis but go off to do his shrink stuff, during which he becomes attracted to Second Year Resident Dr. Sara (Natascha McElhone), while leaving Alex at home to cope with the corrosive hedonism of surroundings so unlike those of her hoity-toity Eastern upbringing.

For me, the only reason to see LAUREL CANYON is the talented Frances McDormand, who proves that she, as an older actress, can be awfully sexy. Of the female roles in the film, world weary and wise Jane is the only one who promises a Good Time not subject to guilty post-coital introspection. Since none of the other characters captured my interest or sympathy, the quality of the acting involved in their portrayal is irrelevant. Ian (Alessandro Nivola), the leader of the rock group, is just obnoxious as Jane's 20-year-younger, Bad Boy lover. Sara is vapid as the seductress of the one she should be professionally mentoring, and who should know better. The admittedly lovely Alex is like a deer caught in the headlights of temptation, and Sam is too neurotic to be an appealing persona. And the very last scene of the film left my wife and I saying "Huh?".

If you have a choice between LAUREL CANYON and SIRENS, choose the latter. As an adult fairy tale and/or morality play, it's much more fun and entertaining.

In Laurel Canyon, Christian Bale plays Sam, a man working into his thirties to escape the chaos of life with his rock-star mom, Jane (Frances McDormand). He finished Harvard medical school and picked up fiancée Alex, a dual PhD/MD (played by Kate Bekinsdale). Sam and Alex plan to stay at Jane's Laurel Canyon home while he completes his residency. Sam tries to shield Alex from Jane's casual parties and hipster friends, but Alex is drawn to the life of excess, and Sam faces losing yet another aspect of his life to his larger-than-life free-spirited mom. At the same time, however, Sam is madly infatuated with a drop-dead gorgeous foreign second-year-resident at his job.

Frances McDormand carries the entire film as the aging hipster mom (she's hot, she's rock n' roll, and she doesn't give a damn what anyone else thinks), but the brilliance of her acting job is counterbalanced by the one-dimensional nature of the fiancée/future daughter-in-law character. The viewer is never convinced of Alex's attraction to Jane's sex, drugs, and rock n' roll lifestyle. For that matter, the viewer is never convinced of Sam's attraction to his co-worker on anything other than an animal lust nature, which seems to go against everything Sam stands for.

McDormand plays a woman who finally matures in her late forties, and who, by the end of the film, has taken baby steps to repair her relationship with her son. The other characters are mere shadows around Jane's transformation. The movie has an ambiguous ending that leaves much to be desired--it is as if the filmmakers felt tying it all up would be too challenging, so the work is left to the viewer.